Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a report on 10 cases

Anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are undifferentiated and highly aggressive tumors of the thyroid follicular epithelium, with a disease-specific mortality approaching 100 percent. This study reports ten cases with advanced anaplastic thyroid carcinoma with ineffective surgical interventions. Between 2001-2006, we treated 10 patients with anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid. All patients presented with advanced phase and were documented by pathological study. The surgical intervention was thyroidectomy in 3 cases, debunking surgery in other three, just tracheostomy in three cases, and only biopsy in one patient. All of our patients died in 4 days to 8 months after surgery. Surgical intervention had no benefit in treatment of advanced anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid and the suitable surgical intervention was to maintain an open airway. Early recognition of the disease is essential to allow prompt initiation of therapy. There is no cure for advanced situations, and surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy play no important role in the treatment.