Clinical Trials And Thyroid Cancer - 1254 Words

Clinical Trials and Thyroid Cancer: Thyroid cancer is often recurrent and difficult to treat. As a result, patients have been taking part in clinical trials of new and innovative treatments. Clinical trials are defined as carefully controlled research studies that are done with volunteer patients. Differentiated thyroid cancer, as explained in a previous section, can be divided into papillary, follicular, and Hà ¼rthle cell arising from follicular cells. The hallmark of follicular thyroid cells is the active uptake of iodine from the bloodstream with organification (meaning the iodine has a reasonably long residence time)18. Even with the most aggressive form of RAI treatment, some patients do not achieve control of the tumor, and†¦show more content†¦Pryma and Mandel concluded that, â€Å"Numerous pathways have been shown to be aberrant in a significant fraction of patients with iodine-refractory advanced thyroid cancer and several therapies targeting these pathways ha ve been tested or are actively being tested in clinical trials†.16 (Figure 6). Figure 6 | Pathways for Clinical Trials Pryma and Mandel also examined radioiodine as a, â€Å"prototypical theranostic agent permitting both imaging and therapy†18. The researchers are hopeful that the therapeutic refinement of RAI treatment will permit decreased (or absent) dose (and decreased toxicity) in the patients who are destined to do well, increased dose in the patients who will benefit from treatment, and more appropriate discontinuation or modification of therapy in those unlikely to benefit from single-agent radioiodine therapy18. It is important to note that in clinical trials for patients with iodine-refractory disease, radioiodine is still highly effective in patients with metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer and should still be used18. Overall, the future of therapy in advanced differentiated thyroid cancer is likely to include multiagent treatment18. Clinical trials an d research have also focused in on patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP). FAP is an autosomal dominant syndrome with a predisposition for colorectal cancer19. Lifetime risk of thyroid