Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neuroendocrine tumor that represents <5% of all thyroid malignancies and is generally more aggressive than differentiated thyroid cancer. The aim of this study is to provide an update, through review of clinical studies of patients with MTC published between January 1, 2016, and June 1, 2021, on recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of MTC. This review focuses on updates in biochemical testing, imaging, hereditary disease, surgical management, adjuvant therapies, and prognosis. Recent advances reviewed herein have sought to diagnose MTC at earlier stages of disease, predict when patients with a hereditary syndrome may develop MTC, use functional imaging to assess for distant metastases, perform optimal initial surgery with appropriate lymphadenectomy, employ targeted systemic therapies for patients with progressive metastatic disease, and better predict patient-specific outcomes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.