Current status and future direction of medullary thyroid cancer in the era of precision therapy / 国际外科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Medullary thyroid carcinoma(MTC) is a rare neuroendocrine neoplasm caused by the malignant hyperplasia of thyroid parafollicular cells, accounting for 4% of all diagnosed thyroid cancer. Patients with MTC have a relatively poor outcome. Distant metastasis, especially in liver, is usually found at the time of diagnosis and the effect of chemotherapy is unsatisfactory in most cases. Due to its highly progressive characteristic and poorer prognosis compared with other subtypes of thyroid cancer, MTC has always been the focus and difficulty of clinical research. In the era of precision therapy, the classification of MTC is more accurate with the application of genetic testing technology and various kinds of individual treatments, such as targeted therapy and peptide receptor radionuclide therapy have been developed. This review will describe the latest development in MTC in the era of precision therapy.