Molecular Testing

The Healio and Endocrine Today editors have compiled the most popular thyroid news stories from 2021.

The FDA and Federal Trade Commission recently warned against dietary supplements that unlawfully claim to cure, treat or prevent diabetes. It was the top story in endocrinology last week.

David Carbone, MD, PhD, received International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s Paul A. Bunn Jr. Scientific Award.

Molecular testing was the best predictor for malignancy in indeterminate thyroid nodules when compared with clinical factors, according to findings from a post hoc analysis published in Thyroid.

In February, ASCO named molecular profiling driving progress in gastrointestinal cancers as its “Advance of the Year.” According to the American Cancer Society, taken collectively, gastrointestinal cancers have the highest incidence in the U.S. and, after lung cancer, are the second leading cause of cancer-related death. Identifying smaller subsets of patients based on tumor-specific and tumor-agnostic alterations provides insight as to who will benefit from personalized therapies. These subsets ultimately end up being substantial in size and, thus, universal testing should indeed be standard of care for all patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer.

In 2010, results of the phase 2 BATTLE study demonstrated that choice of cancer therapy could be individualized based upon a patient’s tumor characteristics.