It was concluded that MTC can be associated with prolonged survival. The best prognosis is seen in young patients undergoing total thyroidectomy and neck dissection. External beam radiotherapy significantly reduces local relapse in patients with limited nodal disease. Effect of primary treatment on survival in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. There is insufficient data in the literature regarding the optimal combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Some centres perform initial surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy and vice versa.
The aim of this retrospective non-randomised study was to determine whether survival of patients treated by primary surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy was better than patients having surgery as a secondary treatment modality. The 83 patients with distant metastases on admission, with survival shorter than one month or who did not undergo any treatment were excluded. The survival of both groups were compared by the log-rank test. In comparison to the primary surgery group, those patients undergoing primary chemotherapy and radiotherapy were older, and had larger and more rapidly growing tumours. There was no difference in survival between the two groups.