RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Anaplastic thyroid cancer has a median survival between 1.2 and 10 months. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the outcomes of patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer in Ireland. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective analysis of the Irish National Cancer Database for patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer between 2000 and 2010. RESULTS: Of a total of 64 patients (40 women, 24 men), the median age was 69 years, and 29.7% of the patients had distant metastases. The overall median survival was 2.3 months and the 1, 2, and 5-year survival was 12.5%, 6.25%, and 4.69%, respectively. On univariate analysis age, sex, metastases at diagnosis, and multimodality treatment were statistically significant indicators of prognosis, and metastases at diagnosis remained statistically significant on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: These results correlate with the American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines, in which, when possible, multimodality therapy offers a survival advantage to a select group of patients. Novel therapies may offer the greatest hope for these patients. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E1122-E1129, 2016.
