Survival in Response to Multimodal Therapy in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Historical outcomes in anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) have been dismal.

To determine whether an initial intensive multimodal therapy (MMT) is associated with improved ATC survival.

MMT was offered to all patients with newly diagnosed ATC treated at the Mayo Clinic from 2003 through 2015; MMT vs care with palliative intent (PI) was individualized considering clinical status and patient preferences. Outcomes were retrospectively analyzed by American Joint Committee on Cancer stage and treatments compared with patient cohort data from 1949 through 1999.

Forty-eight patients (60% male; median age, 62 years); 18 treated with PI, 30 with MMT.

Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival determined by Kaplan-Meier method.

Median OS and 1-year survival for the later cohort were 9 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 4 to 22 months] and 42% (95% CI, 28% to 56%) vs 3 months and 10% for the earlier cohort. Median OS was 21 months compared with 3.9 months in the pooled MMT vs PI groups for the later cohort [hazard ratio (HR), 0.32; P = 0.0006]. Among only patients in the later cohort who had stage IVB disease, median OS was 22.4 vs 4 months (HR, 0.12; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.44; P = 0.0001), with 68% vs 0% alive at 1 year (MMT vs PI). Among patients with stage IVC cancer, OS did not differ by therapy.

MMT appears to convey longer survival in ATC among patients with stage IVA/B disease.