What is the prognosis of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma?

Updated: May 09, 2018
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Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is poorly responsive to multimodality therapy, and median survival is 8.1 months. Young age, unilateral tumors, small tumors (< 5 cm), no local invasion of the surrounding tissue, and a lack of cervical metastases are relatively favorable prognostic indicators. Patients with these features may have slightly prolonged survival. Long-term survival should prompt a reconsideration of the diagnosis of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma; the original tumor is usually found to be a variant of MTC or thyroid lymphoma.

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