Prognostic Impact of Serum Calcitonin and Carcinoembryonic Antigen Doubling-Times in Patients with Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

Calcitonin DT may be superior to initial clinical staging and among the most powerful prognostic indicators in MTC.

Elevated level of serum carbohydrate antigen 19.9 as predictor of mortality in patients with advanced medullary thyroid cancer

“…In particular, the doubling time (Dt) of both Ct (Ct Dt) and CEA is a strong prognostic indicator for MTC recurrence and death (15,16,17,18).…”

Pretargeted Radioimmunotherapy for Hematologic and Other Malignancies

“…156 In another nonrandomized and retrospective study, control patients were selected based on comparable serum calcitonin doubling time, a prognostic indicator of survival. 157 This study indicated that anti-CEA PRIT induced long-term disease stabilization in a significant number of patients, including 47% of high-risk patients. Furthermore, although there was no survival advantage in the entire study cohort, median survival was significantly longer in PRIT patients than control patients in the high-risk subgroup (110 versus 61 months; p < 0.03), 156 providing first evidence for the therapeutic efficacy of PRIT in metastatic, progressive solid tumors.…”

Pretargeted Radioimmunotherapy in the Treatment of Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer

“…time (dt). We have shown that calcitonin dt is an independent predictor of survival, with a high predictive value, in patients with measurable serum calcitonin, even after repeated surgery 12 . at the end of that study, 41 patients with a calcitonin dt greater than 2 years were still alive 2.9 years to 29.5 years after their initial surgery.…”

“…In a phase ii clinical trial, 31 patients with progressive metastatic mtc were injected with a median cumulative activity of 12.6 GBq, and response was defined as a decrease in serum calcitonin after therapy 21 . Interestingly, a post-therapeutic prolongation of calcitonin dt of at least 100% 12 was found in 58% of the patients, and a significantly longer survival was observed in responders than in non-responders. Unfortunately, drawing any valid conclusion with regard to a potential survival benefit is difficult because of a lack of pre-therapeutic selection of patients based on a validated prognostic factor such as calcitonin dt 12 .…”