Objectives

Anaplastic and Poorly Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma provide complex challenges, requiring prompt detection due to its infrequency and high probability of mortality. While surgery, systemic therapy, and radiotherapy are commonly used to treat advanced thyroid malignancies, they generally do not result in a cure or give any clinical benefit beyond palliative care. In this paper, we discuss the clinical profiles and outcomes, of patients with anaplastic or pooly differentiated thyroid carcinoma. We identified clinical presentation, tumor pathological features, management, recurrences, survival outcomes and its predictors.

Methods

This study is a descriptive cross-sectional analysis that examinesdthe clinical characteristics and results of patients who received therapy at our advanced comprehensive cancer center. Patients were identified using total enumeration, which included clinical presentation, pathological findings, treatment modalities, and outcomes such as over all survival and disease-free survival.

Results

We included a total of thirteen patients, of which 11 are poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma, and 2 are anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. The findings indicated that being male, having positive clinical lymph node status, and no definitive surgery were independent variables linked to poorer clinical outcomes. Half of the patients underwent a total thyroidectomy, and one underwent a definitive tracheostomy airway procedure. A greater proportion of our patients exhibited persistent disease and one experienced local disease recurrence after surgery. The average duration of survival from diagnosis among our Filipino cohort was 10.24 months.

Conclusion

In general, our research findings on poorly differentiated thyroid cancer and anaplastic thyroid are consistent with prior studies in terms of the clinical characteristics and outcomes that already exist. This study emphasizes the importance of maintaining a high level of clinical suspicion when it comes to patient characteristics that are linked to worse clinical outcomes and survival.