Current and Future Perspectives in Thyroid Carcinoma Treatment

Thyroid nodules are a common clinical problem and evaluation with neck and thyroid ultrasound and fine-needle aspiration biopsy are the most accurate methods for evaluating and identifying those that require surgical resection. The surgical treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma is the most common and recommended approach. Post-operative ¹³¹I remnant ablation is used to eliminate the post-surgical thyroid remnant and may facilitate the early detection of recurrence. The conclusion of two important recent studies is that the use of recombinant human thyrotropin and low ¹³¹I dose, 30 mCi, for post-operative ablation may be sufficient for the management of low-risk thyroid cancer. Recently, multi-targeted kinase inhibitors have emerged as promising treatments for metastatic differentiated thyroid cancers based on mutation detection in samples from thyroid cancer. Motesanib, sorafenib, vandetanib, sunitinib, lenvatinib, imatinib and cabozantinib are multi-kinase inhibitors that have the ability of inhibiting the rearranged during transection (RET) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), and other kinases, and have been used in advanced differentiated thyroid carcinoma. By contrast, axitinib and pazopanib seem to act only as anti-angiogenic agents. Anaplastic thyroid carinoma is often advanced and metastatic at diagnosis. Patients with localised disease not amenable to surgical resection can be treated with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy.