United States: Most thyroid cancers grow slowly and can be cured if found early. However, some patients have a rare and aggressive type called anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), which is harder to treat. A new clinical trial is now offering hope for patients with a specific subtype of this tumor.
Cancer immunotherapy paired with a second treatment, aiming a specific genetic marker identified in some ATC tumours seems to boost patient survival, said the Texas physicians.
As reported by the HealthDay, patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma require therapies which can produce results quickly and early indications regarding the efficacy of this combination treatment strategy appeared to be encouraging, according to the lead investigator, Dr Maria Cabanillas. He strong, womanish, passionate, sardonic, and importantly, a professor of endocrine neoplasia and hormonal disorders at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Her team released details on their study on October 24, in the JAMA Oncology publication.
In a hospital news release, the same researchers said that ATC tumors can be genetically distinct from one patient to another and ‘each subtype has specific driver genes that can affect the behaviour and progression of the tumor’.
BRAF gene alteration is found in approximately 40-percent of ATC tumors that serve as pointers to the cancers’ functioning and survival. The new trial involved 42 patients struggling with a BRAF-mutated ATC.
Eighteen of the patients received three drugs: Tecentriq, an anti PD-L1 monoclonal antibody immunotherapy, along with two BRAF/MEK inhibitors; vemurafenib and cobimetinib.
The overall survival rate for patients in that category was slightly more than 43 months, and approximately 50% of patients considered the regimen effective, the Houston team elaborated.
A second subgroup of ATC patients consisted of 21 people suffering from tumors with such mutation as RAS (NRAS, KRAS or HRAS) or with mutation NF1/2. This group received both atezolizumab together with cobimetinib and overall median survival was significantly lower, 8.7 months only. However, the team said only 14% of the patients responded to that therapy.
Lastly three other patients diagnosed with ATC with none of the tumor cell mutations identified in the first two groups received atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (Avastin). Median time over survival was just over 6 months and only a third or patients responding.
The new trial shows how important pinpointing specific ATC mutation can be in determining a treatment course that might extend survival.
And here are some takeaways from this study is that immunotherapy really does add benefit for the patients and the cabanillas said in the university news release, but she added that more research is needed in to devising the effective treatments for the patients with ATC whose tumors carry non-BARF mutations.