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Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a lethal human cancer with a 5-year survival rate of less than 10%. Recently, its genomic and transcriptomic characteristics have been extensively elucidated over 5 years owing to advance in high throughput sequencing. These efforts have extended molecular understandings into the progression mechanisms and therapeutic vulnerabilities of aggressive thyroid cancers. In this review, we provide an overview of genomic and transcriptomic alterations in ATC and poorly-differentiated thyroid cancer, which are distinguished from differentiated thyroid cancers. Clinically relevant genomic alterations and deregulated signaling pathways will be able to shed light on more effective prevention and stratified therapeutic interventions for affected patients.
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Postoperative routine radioiodine (RAI) treatment is currently debated for patients with low-risk differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients. If performed, a low 131I activity (i.e., 1 to 2 GBq) is recommended with the aim to ablate thyroid remnant and facilitate subsequent follow-up by thyroglobulin measurement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between postsurgical technetium-99m (99mTc)-pertechnetate scintigraphy and the rate of successful remnant ablation after low activity radioiodine ablation in patients with DTC.
Enrolled were 193 patients with low risk DTC who underwent total thyroidectomy and RAI ablation with a fixed 1.1 GBq activity of 131I. 99mTc-pertechnetate scans were done and thyrotropin stimulated thyroglobulin (sTg) levels measured just before ablation. Ablation effectiveness was assessed 6 to 12 months later by sTg measurement, neck ultrasound and diagnostic whole body scan.
A negative 99mTc-perthecnetate scans was the best predictor of successful ablation (
The 99mTc-pertechnetate scintigraphy is a simple and feasible tool to predict effectiveness of low activity 131I thyroid to ablate thyroid remnants in patients with DTC.
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Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the most lethal human malignancies. Docetaxel, a microtubule stabilizer, is a common chemotherapeutic agent used to treat various metastatic cancers. However, prolonged use results in various side effects and drug resistance. Flavonoids, such as baicalein, are accepted chemotherapeutic and dietary chemopreventive agents with many advantages, such as greater accessibility, affordability, and lower toxicity, compared with traditional chemotherapy agents. In this study, we evaluated whether baicalein enhances the effects of docetaxel on apoptosis and metastasis in 8505c ATC cells.
The 8505c cells were treated with baicalein or docetaxel individually and in combination. Cell viability was measured by MTT (thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide) assay, and apoptosis was detected by fluorescence microscopy of Hoechst-stained cells. The expression of apoptotic (Bax and caspase-3), anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2), angiogenic (vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF], transforming growth factor β [TGF-β], E-cadherin, and N-cadherin), and signaling (extracellular signal-regulated kinase [ERK] mitogen activated protein kinase [MAPK], Akt, and mammalian target of rapamycin [mTOR]) proteins was determined by Western blot analysis.
The combination of baicalein (50 or 100 µM) and docetaxel (10 nM) significantly inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis compared with monotherapies. The combination treatment significantly inhibited the expression of Bax, caspase-3, VEGF, TGF-β1, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and mTOR, but decreased the expression of Bcl-2 and significantly decreased the phosphorylation of ERK and Akt.
The combination of baicalein and docetaxel effectively induced apoptosis and inhibited metastasis in 8505c cells through downregulation of apoptotic and angiogenic protein expression and blocking of the ERK and Akt/mTOR pathways in 8505c cells. These results suggest that baicalein enhances the anticancer effects of docetaxel in ATC.
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Tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) and CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) have emerged as potential biomarkers in various human cancers. The aims of this study were to investigate the clinical characteristics of anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) patients according to the TAM numbers in the tumor tissue, and to evaluate the associations between CXCR4 expressions and macrophage densities in ATC tumor microenvironment.
Total 14 ATC samples from thyroid tissue microarray were used. Immunohistochemical staining was performed using anti-CD163 and anti-CXCR4 antibodies. According to the immunoreactivity of CD163, all subjects were divided into two groups: low-CD163 (
The mean diagnostic age was 65±7 years and the median tumor size was 4.3 cm, ranging 2.5 to 15 cm. Clinicopathological characteristics were not significantly different between low-CD163 and high-CD163 groups, while age of diagnosis was younger in high-CD163 group than that of low-CD163 group with marginal significance (56.9±5.5 years vs. 67.5±6.8 years,
Increased number of TAMs showed poor overall survival in ATC, suggesting TAMs are potentially a prognostic biomarker for ATC. CXCR4 expression was significantly correlated with CD163-positive TAM densities, which suggest the possible role of CXCR4 in TAM recruitments.
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Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neuroendocrine tumor mainly caused by mutations in the rearranged during transfection (
The effects of MKT-077 on cell proliferation, survival, expression of RET and tumor protein 53 (TP53), and mitochondrial activity were determined in the human MTC lines in culture and in mouse xenografts.
MKT-077 induced cell cycle arrest in TT and MZ-CRC-1. Intriguingly, MKT-077 also induced RET downregulation and strong cell death responses in TT cells, but not in MZ-CRC-1 cells. This discrepancy was mainly due to the difference between the capacities of these cell lines to retain MKT-077 in mitochondria. The cytotoxicity of MKT-077 in TT cells was mainly attributed to oxidative stress while being independent of TP53. MKT-077 also effectively suppressed tumor growth of TT xenografts.
MKT-077 can suppress cell survival of certain MTC subtypes by accumulating in mitochondria and interfering with mitochondrial activity although it can also suppress cell proliferation via other mechanisms. These results consistently support the hypothesis that mitochondrial targeting has therapeutic potential for MTC.
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Recent surge of thyroid cancer, especially papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), ignited a debate on over-diagnosis of cancer. Such increase in incidence is a worldwide phenomenon, but it has been the most prominent in Korea. Although increased detection might have played a major role, some evidences suggest that true increase in incidence have also contributed to such phenomenon. PTC is a very common disease being the most common cancer in human. As the mortality due to PTC is relatively low, understanding pathophysiology of the disease and risk prediction in individual patient have particular importance for optimal management, but little has been known. I suggest a reason for such a commonality of PTC, and would like to describe my view on some aspects of PTC including unresolved issue on management based on our recent observations.
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Ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) syndrome is caused most frequently by a bronchial carcinoid tumor or by small cell lung cancer. Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare etiology of ectopic ACTH syndrome. We describe a case of Cushing syndrome due to ectopic ACTH production from MTC in a 48-year-old male. He was diagnosed with MTC 14 years ago and underwent total thyroidectomy, cervical lymph node dissection and a series of metastasectomies. MTC was confirmed by the pathological examination of the thyroid and metastatic mediastinal lymph node tissues. Two years after his last surgery, he developed Cushingoid features, such as moon face and central obesity, accompanied by uncontrolled hypertension and new-onset diabetes. The laboratory results were compatible with ectopic ACTH syndrome. A bilateral adrenalectomy improved the clinical and laboratory findings that were associated with Cushing syndrome. This is the first confirmed case of ectopic ACTH syndrome caused by MTC in Korea.
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