Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2026
Computer-Aided Three-Dimensional Visualization in the Treatment of Locally Advanced Thyroid Cancer
Published on: June 9, 2023
Postoperative radiotherapy for advanced medullary thyroid cancer--local disease control in the modern era
David L Schwartz1, Vishal Rana, Stephanie Shaw
1Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
Background:
The purpose of this study is to catalog modern-era postoperative radiotherapy (external beam radiotherapy [EBRT]) outcomes for advanced medullary thyroid cancer.
Methods:
Thirty-four consecutive patients with stage IVa-c disease were evaluated. Ten patients had recurrent disease, 16 had mediastinal involvement, and 10 had distant metastasis. Positive surgical margins were present in 12 cases. Median pre-EBRT serum calcitonin was 556. All patients received conformal EBRT or intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Median EBRT dose was 60 Gy and median follow-up was 46.5 months.
Results:
Kaplan-Meier estimates of locoregional relapse-free survival, disease-specific survival, and overall survival at 5 years were 87%, 62%, and 56%, respectively. Disease in 3 patients with gross residual disease was controlled locoregionally. Distant disease at the time of EBRT did not predict survival. Two (9%) patients reported symptomatic chronic morbidity.
Conclusion:
Surgery followed by EBRT provided durable locoregional disease control with limited morbidity. Postoperative EBRT merits consideration in cases of advanced disease at high risk for locoregional recurrence.
