Locally Advanced Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma with Long-Term Survival of More Than 7 Years after Combined Surgery Including Tracheal Resection and Radiotherapy: Case Report

Weizhong Ernest Fu^1*, Ming Yann Lim¹, Khoon Leong Chuah², Li-Chung Mark Khoo¹

¹Department of Otolaryngology, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore City, Singapore.
²Department of Pathology, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore City, Singapore.

DOI: 10.4236/ijohns.2015.44053                

Abstract

Background: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is one of the most aggressive human malignancies with a mean survival time of 6 months regardless of treatment. Aim: To present a case of locally advanced anaplastic thyroid carcinoma with long-term survival. A 10-year literature review of locally advanced ATC with long-term survival (more than 2 years) is also presented. Case presentation: We present a case of locally advanced anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) with tracheal invasion in a 67-year-old elderly Chinese man who was treated with radical surgery encompassing total thyroidectomy, neck dissection and tracheal resection followed by adjuvant radiotherapy. Long-term disease-free survival is more than 7 years to date. Conclusion: The prognosis of ATC remains poor as it is characterized by aggressive and extensive disease at presentation, the inability in most patients to perform radical enough surgery in order to achieve clear margins, high morbidity of complete extirpation and limited response to radiotherapy or chemotherapy. However, if complete surgical resection is possible, patients should be treated aggressively with a combination of surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy.

Keywords

Anaplastic, Thyroid, Survival, Trachea

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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