Combined therapy for undifferentiated giant and spindle cell carcinoma of the thyroid

Undifferentiated giant and spindle cell carcinoma is an unusual and high-grade malignant type of cancer of the thyroid. The results of surgical and/or radiotherapeutic treatment have been discouraging. Only a few patients respond to therapy, usually for a short time. Recently, a few reports have been published on the effect of chemotherapy or a combined treatment of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In the present paper the results of combining radiotherapy and chemotherapy, 5-FU and cyclophosphamide, are reported. For the future a more aggressive approach is discussed. The therapy should include surgical resection of the main bulk of the tumour, followed by radiotherapy and concomitant chemotherapy and thereafter prolonged adjuvant chemotherapy.