Modern approaches to age-old questions about thyroid tumors

There is a compelling need for improvement in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules, in predicting thyroid cancer prognosis and, in the treatment of recurrent well-differentiated and anaplastic thyroid cancer. In this review we discuss the impact of genomic technologies such as microarrays, SAGE, and proteomics on the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of thyroid cancer. Gene expression profiling using these technologies has shown promising results in the molecular classification of different types of cancer, including thyroid. Furthermore, microarrays have been successfully used to identify prognostic markers in other cancer-types, offering the possibility to better tailor thyroid cancer treatment schemes. Lastly, novel therapeutic targeting against tyrosine kinases have shown promising results in the treatment of several cancers and might prove to be beneficial for patients with recurrent or undifferentiated thyroid cancer.