Anaplastic thyroid cancer: review of precision therapy options and advances
- 1Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL United States of America
- 2Medical College of Wisconsin, Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center and Linda T. and John A. Mellowes Center for Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine, Milwaukee, WI United States of America
- 3Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy, University of California San Diego Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA United States of America
Abstract
Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a rare and aggressive tumor with a historical median survival of less than six months. Most patients have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy has not shown survival benefits. Molecular testing and next-generation sequencing are used to identify specific targets for patients with ATC. If positive for BRAF V600E mutation, patients can be treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors. Other therapies include tyrosine kinase inhibitors (e.g., lenvatinib) and recently immune checkpoint inhibitors which have shown remarkable results in a subset of patients, including when used along with targeted therapy. An illustrative case of a patient with advanced BRAF-mutant ATC (respiratory failure on a ventilator) who recovered with a combination of the anti-PD1 nivolumab and the BRAF V600E targeted drug vemurafenib is shown. Further studies using biomarker-based gene- and immune-targeted agents, including in combination, are needed in ATC.
Related
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BibTeX
@article{khalid2026anaplastic,
title = {{Anaplastic thyroid cancer: review of precision therapy options and advances}},
author = {Noor Khalid and Razelle Kurzrock and Shumei Kato},
journal = {NPJ Precision Oncology},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1038/s41698-026-01524-9},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-026-01524-9},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Anaplastic thyroid cancer: review of precision therapy options and advances
AU - Noor Khalid
AU - Razelle Kurzrock
AU - Shumei Kato
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/08
JO - NPJ Precision Oncology
DO - 10.1038/s41698-026-01524-9
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-026-01524-9
AB - Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a rare and aggressive tumor with a historical median survival of less than six months. Most patients have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy has not shown survival benefits. Molecular testing and next-generation sequencing are used to identify specific targets for patients with ATC. If positive for BRAF V600E mutation, patients can be treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors. Other therapies include tyrosine kinase inhibitors (e.g., lenvatinib) and recently immune checkpoint inhibitors which have shown remarkable results in a subset of patients, including when used along with targeted therapy. An illustrative case of a patient with advanced BRAF-mutant ATC (respiratory failure on a ventilator) who recovered with a combination of the anti-PD1 nivolumab and the BRAF V600E targeted drug vemurafenib is shown. Further studies using biomarker-based gene- and immune-targeted agents, including in combination, are needed in ATC.
SN - 2397-768X
ER -