Combined doxorubicin, hyperfractionated radiotherapy, and surgery in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Report on two protocols

✍ Scribed by Jan Tennvall; Göran Lundell; Arne Hallquist; Peter Wahlberg; Göran Wallin; Sten Tibblin

• Book ID: 102674899
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 678 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19940815)74:4<1348::aid-cncr2820740427>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

Background. Anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid (ACT) rarely can be cured, but every effort should be made to improve prognosis and, above all, prevent death due to suffocation or large local tumor ulceration.

Methods. From 1984 to 1992,33 consecutive patients with ACT were treated prospectively according to a combined treatment program consisting of hyperfractionated radiotherapy, doxorubicin, and debulking surgery.

Preoperative radiotherapy was administered to a target dose of 30 Gy and postoperatively to a total dose of 46 Gy. Radiotherapy was performed 5 days a week. The daily fraction was 1.0 Gy X 2 until 1988, after which it was 1.3 Gy X 2. Otherwise, the therapy remained unchanged. Twenty milligrams of doxorubicin were administered intravenously per week. Debulking surgery was possible in 23 patients (70%).

Results. No patient failed to completethe protocol because of toxicity. There were no signs of local recurrence From the Departments of