Treatment of patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer during the last 20 years: whether any progress has been made?

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the most deadly cancers in humans. Searching a PubMed database, studies published during the last 20 years, 63 publications dealing with treatment of patients were identified. Cohort studies comprised 6,609 patients with the median age 68 years (range 57-77 years). The median survival was 3.9 months, and 1 year survival, 20 %. The median survival of patients treated with multimodal therapy was 10.5 months. There was significant difference in median survival (7.0 vs. 3.8 months; p < 0.05) and 1 year survival (30.5 vs. 16.8 months; p < 0.05) between the patients < 68 and 68 or more years old. Clinical trials, both randomized and non-randomized, comprised 205 patients. Unfortunately, considerable improvement in the understanding of the pathogenesis and genetics of the ATC has not yet resulted in the improvement of the outcome of these patients.