International Thyroid Congress

John Copland, PhD, faculty member in the department of cancer biology, Mayo Clinic, explains his research on patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models in anaplastic thyroid cancer.

Abnormal thyroid function tests were reported in up to 15% of patients treated with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab.

Coexisting mutations in BRAF and TERT may be associated with an aggressive phenotype and higher recurrence rates for patients with locally advanced well-differentiated thyroid cancers.

The recent American Thyroid Association guidelines to abstain from cytological evaluation by biopsy for patients with thyroid cancer on the basis of having thyroid nodules ≤1 cm is not advisable.

Pazopanib demonstrated significant clinical activity for patients with RAI-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer; however, a predictive biomarker for the therapy could not be uncovered.

Researchers have identified molecular markers in medullary thyroid cancer that were associated with response to vandetanib and the development of metastases.

Stephen Huang, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the challenges of pediatric thyroid cancer.

Dual targeting of BRAF V600E–positive papillary thyroid carcinoma with the anti-BRAF V600E agent vemurafenib and the angiogenesis inhibitor sorafenib showed promising clinical activity.

Marcia Brose, MD, PhD, associate professor of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses survival benefit and possible combination strategies with the lenvatinib in patients with radioactive iodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer.

Pablo Valderrabano, MD, Clinical Research Fellow at Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses molecular markers in thyroid nodules and their connection to cancer incidence.

Aditi Kumar, MD, endocrinology fellow at the University of Mississippi, discusses aggressive multimodal therapy in anaplastic thyroid cancer. A study conducted at the Mayo Clinic, where Kumar was previously a fellow, looked at 29 patients with stage IV, A, B and C anaplastic thyroid cancer, a rare form of thyroid cancer with poor outcomes. Often, patients are not treated at this stage, as options are limited and toxicities from treatments can be high, says Kumar.

The oral multikinase inhibitor cabozantinib showed promise as a second- or third-line therapy in patients with advanced radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer.

The progression-free survival benefit with lenvatinib in radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer was observed across common sites of metastasis.

A large survey of endocrinologists found wide variation in management strategies for thyroid nodules that were frequently misaligned with current guidelines, particularly for biopsies by fine-needle aspiration.

Umamaheswar Duvvuri, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology (ENT) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, talks about potential genetic signatures for locally advanced, well differentiated thyroid cancers.

Manisha Shah, MD, Professor of Oncology at Ohio State University Medical Center, College of Medicine discusses cabozantinib in patients with radioiodine- refractory differentiated thyroid cancer.