Recent advances in knowledge about thyroid cancer show the need for a personalized approach, both for indolent thyroid carcinomas, which can be treated and followed with a more conservative approach, and for advanced thyroid cancer, which may need a more intensive follow-up and aggressive therapy.
Several new trends in thyroid cancer approaches rose in the last few years. In particular, thyroid cancer management has been shifting towards a more conservative approach. The focus has been directed to active surveillance in patients with thyroid microcarcinomas, to local conservative non-surgical therapies, such as radiofrequency or alcohol ablation for microcarcinomas and local lymph node metastases, and to minimally invasive surgical techniques. Few data have been reported about these new techniques but they may become the standard of care, particularly for those patients with microcarcinomas with anxiety about active surveillance or for those who present local tumor growth under active surveillance. Furthermore, in the last decades, molecular techniques have opened up new diagnostic scenarios in the pre-intervention identification and risk classification of patients with a known diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma that improved patient management and follow-up.
Regarding advanced thyroid tumors, new drugs have been developed to control the disease, such as multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitors and targeted therapies. However, in some cases, tumors become resistant to these drugs. Currently, there are no reliable markers, clinical or molecular, that have been found to be predictive of an early escape from therapy control. Other drugs for this kind of tumor should be developed to be used as second, third, or successive treatment and studies combining two or more drugs are needed to explore the possibility of overcoming the resistance to a single therapy.
The aim of this topic is to highlight all the new advances in the diagnosis and management of patients with thyroid cancer, from low-risk to advanced thyroid tumors.
The collection of articles focusing on all the different diagnostic and therapeutic aspects will increase the knowledge of new techniques available in clinical practice and new techniques under development.
Within this research topic we encourage the submission of manuscripts about:
- new approaches to pre-surgery thyroid cancer diagnosis;
- new radiological imaging tools in the identification and follow-up of patients with thyroid cancer;
- new molecular biology approaches in the diagnosis and follow-up of thyroid carcinoma;
- new conservative therapies in the treatment of thyroid carcinoma;
- new minimally invasive surgical techniques for the treatment of thyroid carcinomas;
- new treatments for advanced tumors and potential mechanisms of drug resistance;
- new markers, both clinical and molecular, that could be predictive of an early escape from drug control;
- combination of therapy to overcome the resistance to a single tyrosine-kinase inhibitor or targeted therapy;
- importance of thyroid tumor microenvironment and its effect on tumor progression and drug resistance;
- artificial intelligence in thyroid cancer diagnosis and management.
Recent advances in knowledge about thyroid cancer show the need for a personalized approach, both for indolent thyroid carcinomas, which can be treated and followed with a more conservative approach, and for advanced thyroid cancer, which may need a more intensive follow-up and aggressive therapy.
Several new trends in thyroid cancer approaches rose in the last few years. In particular, thyroid cancer management has been shifting towards a more conservative approach. The focus has been directed to active surveillance in patients with thyroid microcarcinomas, to local conservative non-surgical therapies, such as radiofrequency or alcohol ablation for microcarcinomas and local lymph node metastases, and to minimally invasive surgical techniques. Few data have been reported about these new techniques but they may become the standard of care, particularly for those patients with microcarcinomas with anxiety about active surveillance or for those who present local tumor growth under active surveillance. Furthermore, in the last decades, molecular techniques have opened up new diagnostic scenarios in the pre-intervention identification and risk classification of patients with a known diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma that improved patient management and follow-up.
Regarding advanced thyroid tumors, new drugs have been developed to control the disease, such as multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitors and targeted therapies. However, in some cases, tumors become resistant to these drugs. Currently, there are no reliable markers, clinical or molecular, that have been found to be predictive of an early escape from therapy control. Other drugs for this kind of tumor should be developed to be used as second, third, or successive treatment and studies combining two or more drugs are needed to explore the possibility of overcoming the resistance to a single therapy.
The aim of this topic is to highlight all the new advances in the diagnosis and management of patients with thyroid cancer, from low-risk to advanced thyroid tumors.
The collection of articles focusing on all the different diagnostic and therapeutic aspects will increase the knowledge of new techniques available in clinical practice and new techniques under development.
Within this research topic we encourage the submission of manuscripts about:
- new approaches to pre-surgery thyroid cancer diagnosis;
- new radiological imaging tools in the identification and follow-up of patients with thyroid cancer;
- new molecular biology approaches in the diagnosis and follow-up of thyroid carcinoma;
- new conservative therapies in the treatment of thyroid carcinoma;
- new minimally invasive surgical techniques for the treatment of thyroid carcinomas;
- new treatments for advanced tumors and potential mechanisms of drug resistance;
- new markers, both clinical and molecular, that could be predictive of an early escape from drug control;
- combination of therapy to overcome the resistance to a single tyrosine-kinase inhibitor or targeted therapy;
- importance of thyroid tumor microenvironment and its effect on tumor progression and drug resistance;
- artificial intelligence in thyroid cancer diagnosis and management.
