Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer: a Retrospective analysis of 120 cases.

INTRODUCTION Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer (ATC) is one of the most lethal malignancies with very short survival and extremely poor treatment outcome. ATC accounts for 2-5% of all thyroid cancers worldwide with an annual incidence of about 2 million. OBJECTIVE To review the natural history and treatment outcome of ATC patients treated at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH and RC) located at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. MATERIAL AND METHODS Retrospective review of 120 Saudi cancer patients collected from registry data at KFSH & RC from 1976-2008. Search key words included: thyroid cancer, anaplastic, undifferentiated and not otherwise specified. Search was not restricted to particular age, gender, treatment or tumor size. Demographic information, baseline patient characteristics including date of diagnosis, type of treatment and date of death were obtained from KFSH & RC registry data and Saudi death registry. RESULTS A total of 120 cases were identified at our cancer centre from 1976 to 2008. Of these total, 73 were females (60.8%) and 47 were males (39.2%). The average age at diagnosis was 63.34 +/- 12.8 years. Thirty-four patients underwent surgery (28.3%), 52 had a palliative radiation treatment (43.3%) and only 5 had chemotherapy (4.2%). The median survival was 53 days (0-457). CONCLUSION Our review proves that ATC is rapidly fatal cancer and is unresponsive to currently available therapeutic options. More research is needed to understand the tumor biology and novel treatment options. KEYWORDS thyroid cancer, anaplastic, undifferentiated, radiation treatment, chemotherapy, median survival, Riyadh and Saudi Arabia.