Kalman Unveils Insights on Thyroid Cancer Prognosis and Treatments

Noah S. Kalman, MD, MBA, a radiation oncologist specializing in the treatment of gynecologic, head and neck, thoracic and pediatric cancers, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, and sarcoma at Miami Cancer Institute of Baptist Health Medical Group, discusses the most common types of thyroid cancer and their respective prognoses. He also highlights some of the available treatment options for patients with this disease.

Kalman explains that the most common type of thyroid cancer is papillary thyroid cancer, followed by follicular thyroid cancer. Both of these diseases are classified as differentiated thyroid cancers with treatment primarily involving surgery—either total or partial thyroidectomy.

For patients who undergo total thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine is typically administered as a key treatment option. For those with more advanced disease, they may receive additional therapies, including tyrosine kinase inhibitors and other targeted treatments.

Transcription:

0:09 | The most common kind of thyroid cancer that we see is papillary thyroid cancer, which falls under the category of differentiated thyroid cancers. Papillary is the most common, and then follicular thyroid cancer is sort of second on the list. Then, there are some other different subtypes that we see as well. And then, there are some dedifferentiated thyroid cancers that are much less common.

0:44 | For thyroid cancers, particularly papillary thyroid cancers and follicular thyroid cancers, the mainstay of treatment is surgery, whether total thyroidectomy or partial. And then for those that have disease that there is enough and that requires a total thyroidectomy, I will commonly treat them with radioactive iodine, which is sort of the other mainstay treatment and is the one of the original targeted therapies that has been around for decades and decades. And then for patients with more advanced disease, there are other therapies like tyrosine kinase inhibitors and other targeted therapies that are used.