Anaplasic carcinoma

Anaplasic (undifferentiated) carcinoma
Updated: 12/13/2018
© Jun Wang, MD, PhD

General features
  • Aggressive, rapid growing, with near 100% mortality rate
  • Older people, with a mean age of 65
  • May have past history of well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma
Clinical features
  • Rapidly growing neck mass
  • Other presentations associated with local aggression and metastases, including bone pain, neurological defects
Key pathological features
  • Markedly atypical tumor cells
Marker
  • May be negative for thyroglobulin
Molecular abnormality
  • N-RAS
  • BRAF
Treatment
  • Mostly palliative
  • Total thyroidectomy
  • Radiation therapy
  • Chemotherapy



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