Management of anaplastic thyroid cancer

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a deadly disease with a dismal prognosis. Molecular analyses of ATC tumors have yielded interesting results, which could help in understanding the underlying mechanisms of this aggressive disease process. Managing ATC can be challenging and includes rapid diagnosis, adequate staging, and interdisciplinary, multimodal treatments to optimize patient outcome. Treatments include surgical resection to gross negative margins when possible, as well as neo- or adjuvant treatment with chemotherapy or external beam radiation (XRT) for locoregional disease. New treatment strategies include evaluating the benefits of vascular disrupting agents and tyrosine kinase inhibitors for advanced ATC with driver mutations, which can be targeted. This review summarizes key concepts in managing ATC.