[Management of refractory thyroid cancers].

During the last two decades, the understanding of molecular biology of thyroid cancers has greatly improved, and this has permitted the development of novel therapeutic tools in patients with refractory disease. Kinase inhibitors inhibit kinases of the VEGF receptors, and by doing this inhibit angiogenesis, and some of these agents also inhibit other kinases of the Mitogen-Activated Protein kinases (MAPkinase) pathway. These inhibitors are effective in differentiated and medullary thyroid cancers, and induce a partial response or a long-term stabilisation in more than half of patients.