A Look at the Latest Advancements in Thyroid Cancer Treatment

Lori J. Wirth, MD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and medical director of the Center for Head and Neck Cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses imaging techniques, biomarker identification, and promising treatments on the horizon in the thyroid cancer space.

Transcription:

0:10 | In terms of imaging techniques related to the diagnosis of thyroid cancer, 1 thing that we are going to be seeing is [artificial intelligence] applications of diagnostic imaging for defining which thyroid nodules are benign vs which are malignant. I think that we are just at the start of those new technologies and incorporating them into the diagnosis of thyroid cancers.

0:45 | Some of the most promising treatments for thyroid cancers have been gene specific treatments, targeted therapies for cancers that are driven by specific gene alterations. For example, targeting NTRK fusion-positive advanced thyroid cancer with NTRK specific inhibitors, has been a major breakthrough. Similarly, targeting RET-altered cancers, with RET specific inhibitors has been a big breakthrough.

1:22 | Less commonly, we see thyroid cancers that are driven by ALK fusions. We know that when we treat those advanced thyroid cancers with ALK specific inhibitors, we can see durable responses. The precision targeted therapy space has been an area where there has been major progress.

1:52 | What we are still working on is how to leverage the presence of BRAF V600E mutations, which we see in a large number of advanced papillary thyroid cancers, and in a significant percentage of anaplastic thyroid cancers as well. With RAS-driven cancers, mostly follicular thyroid cancers, there are a whole new set of drugs that are in development that are being developed more for other RAS-driven cancers, such as pancreatic cancer, melanoma, lung cancer, and we are going to be seeing applications of those new drugs in RAS-driven cancers in the coming years as well.