Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: an overview.

Thyroid cancer is an uncommon malignancy that accounts for roughly 1% of all new cancers. Although anaplastic lesions constitute fewer than 5% of thyroid cancers, they represent over half of thyroid cancer-related deaths. The relative rarity of anaplastic thyroid cancer, its aggressive nature, and its rapidly fatal course have contributed to the difficulty in developing effective treatment for this disease. Radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery are rarely curative, but combinations of these modalities appear to offer greater benefit than any single treatment. New treatment modalities are desperately required, and promising molecular-based therapies are being investigated.