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Objective@#To investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer.@*Methods@#Clinical data of 56 patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from January 2006 to June 2016 were retrospectively reviewed and followed up.@*Results@#Of the 56 patients, there were 24 male and 32 female. The median age was 65 years old. At diagnosis, 10 patients have different degrees of breathing difficulty; 8 patients have varying degrees of dysphagia, and 12 patients have hoarseness. Distant metastases were found in 23 patients at presentation. Patient staging was performed in accordance with the tumor-node-metastasis system as follows: stage ⅣA (n=19), stage ⅣB (n=14) and stage ⅣC (n=23). The median survival time of 56 patients was 4.5 months.The overall 1-year survival rate was 5.4%. Univariate analysis showed that radiotherapy and multimodality therapy were prognostic factors for 1-year overall survival (both of P<0.05). The overall 1-year survival rate of the patients who received precision radiotherapy was 16.7%, which was higher than who received the other radiation therapy (4.0%, P=0.040). Furthermore, the overall 1-year survival rate of the patients who received surgery combined with radiotherapy was 12.5%, which was higher than who received the other treatments(4.2%, P=0.040). Multivariate analysis indicated that radiotherapy was independently associated with improved survival (P=0.020).@*Conclusions@#Patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer should receive multimodality therapies combining surgery with radiotherapy. Radiotherapy is independently associated with improved overall survival. Notably, the precision radiotherapy that based on image guidance has a significantly beneficial impact on the prognosis of patients.
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Thyroid cancer is one of the commonest head and neck cancer. According to the recent research, VI lymph nodes (also called the front area, including thyrocricoid lymph nodes, tracheal surrounding lymph nodes, thyroid surrounding lymph node,recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes, retropharyngeal lymph nodes) is the most common site of involvement in the differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Thyrocricoid lymph nodes known as the Delphian lymph node(DLN) is located between the thyroid cartilage and the cricoid cartilage. The DLN is one of the most accurate predictor. This paper reviewed the clinical significance of the DLN, the role of DLN metastasis in papillary thyroid cancer, and the relationship between tumor size, multicentricity and DLN metastasis. We also discussed the association between DLN metastasis and additional central compartment metastasis, as well as lateral compartment metastasis.