Trends in Mortality for Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer: Have We Made Progress?

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health

Background:

• Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) has a high mortality rate, causing two-thirds of thyroid cancer deaths.
• Median survival for ATC is approximately 6 months, even with multimodal treatment.
• Recent single-center studies suggest improved survival with new ATC treatments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if new ATC treatments and multimodal approaches are linked to reduced national mortality risk over time.
• To analyze national survival trends for Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 874 Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer patients from the National Cancer Institute's SEER database (1990-2020).
• Utilized Cox proportional hazards models to assess changes in 2-year survival and identify survival-associated characteristics.
• Evaluated both Overall Survival (OS) and Cancer-Specific Survival (CSS).

Main Results:

• Overall 2-year survival was 14%; Cancer-Specific Survival was 19%.
• No significant change in CSS was observed with increasing diagnosis year from 1990-2020 (aHR 0.98 [0.94, 1.01]).
• Patients receiving treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation) had significantly increased CSS (aHR 0.42 [0.32, 0.55]).

Conclusions:

• No significant improvement in overall or cancer-specific survival for Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer was found nationally over time, after adjusting for confounders.
• While treatment receipt is associated with improved CSS, more effective therapies are crucial for increasing survival.
• Further research into novel and improved treatment strategies for ATC is warranted.