Mayo Clinic Study to Treat Deadly Form of Thyroid Cancer Shows Promise

A combination of therapies may prove to be a promising advance for the treatment of anaplastic thyroid cancer based on results of a phase I clinical trial, say researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is one of the deadliest of all cancers. Nearly all patients diagnosed with this cancer die from it, and life expectancies are measured in weeks to a few months. Even though it is very rare -- approximately 600 patients are diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer each year in the United States -- the cancer accounts for 50 percent of all deaths from all types of thyroid cancer, according to the American Thyroid Association.