Advances in the treatment of thyroid cancer in the era of molecularly targeted therapies

During last decade, many progresses have been made in the understanding of thyroid cancer molecular biology. This knowledge led to the development of novel targeted therapy in iodine-resistant patients. However, the management of patients remains complex because of the broad spectrum of clinical presentation of thyroid cancers, differences in their natural histories and the lack of data about randomized trials. Angiogenesis inhibitors (sorafenib, motesanib, axitinib and vandetanib) have shown promising activity in differentiated thyroid cancer. Vandetanib, an inhibitor of RET and VEGFR tyrosine-kinases, is promising in medullary thyroid cancers. Preliminary results of these trials are discussed in this review.