Survival With Lenvatinib for the Treatment of Progressive Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer: A Single-Center, Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Background: Survival rates for anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) have not improved in the past four decades; however, preliminary clinical data indicate that lenvatinib may provide efficacy benefits for patients with ATC. This real-world study aimed to define the potential role of lenvatinib in ATC by examining the impact of treatment administered alongside existing therapies. Methods: This was a retrospective, single-center analysis of Korean patients with confirmed ATC who received lenvatinib between October 2015 and February 2018. Eighteen patients were included (mean ± standard deviation age, 64.9 ± 11.1 years; 61.1% female). Six [33.3%] had resectable disease that progressed after a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, and 12 [66.7%] had unresectable disease that progressed after radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Study endpoints were overall survival (OS) and change in volume of the largest tumor assessed via imaging. Results: Median OS for the 18 lenvatinib-treated patients was 230 days (range 64–839 days). Survival rates at 6 months and 1 year were 61.1 and 22.2%, respectively. Three patients (16.7%) survived beyond 1 year; 15 patients died, of whom four (26.7%) had local disease and 11 (73.3%) had distant metastasis. Two patients (11.1%) had tumor volume increases of 9–10%. The other 16 patients (88.9%) had tumor volume reductions of 2–69%. Six patients (33.3%) had tumor volume reductions ≥50%. Conclusions: In patients with ATC who had progressed on prior therapy, addition of lenvatinib could improve survival duration and reduce tumor volume. Further studies of lenvatinib in ATC are warranted.

Lenvatinib in Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma (ATC) in a Tertiary Caner Hospital- a Single Institute Experience

“…Another key observation is that 75% of our patients had some clinically meaningful regression, which is note worthy as it is much higher than other reports [2,3,4,9,10] and similar to the observations of Soo Young Kim et al [1].…”

“…The age range in the present study is 43-69 years, which is in alignment with the literature. The interval from the first diagnosis to recurrence is quite short in this series as reported in literature [1,2,8].…”

“…Original Research Article standard of care available for this cancer. Current survival times for patients with ATC are reported to be extremely short and median Overall Survival (OS) for patients with unresectable disease ranges from 0.5 to 6 months despite multimodal treatment [1]. The newer oral multi targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Lenvatinib showed promising results for the same.…”

“…The newer oral multi targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Lenvatinib showed promising results for the same. The initial case reports have shown some good clinical response, which encouraged the oncologists to use the drug more extensively [1,2,3,4]. Based on the literature, we used the lenvatinib in 4 of the subjects and presenting a case series along with demographics, response and the safety profile.…”

Thyroid Cancers: From Surgery to Current and Future Systemic Therapies through Their Molecular Identities

“…Lenvatinib was also demonstrated to be effective in a retrospective, single center analysis of 18 Korean patients with confirmed ATC [ 87 ]. Six patients had resectable disease that progressed after a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, and 12 had unresectable disease that progressed after radiation treatment and chemotherapy.…”