help button home button The Oncologist http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/misc/eLetters.shtml
HOME HELP CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Oncologist, Vol. 13, No. 5, 539-547, May 2008; doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2007-0239
© 2008 AlphaMed Press

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow CME: Take the course for this article:
 Current Management of Medullary Thyroid Cancer
Right arrow eLetters: Submit a response to this article
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article link to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Reprints/Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sippel, R. S.
Right arrow Articles by Chen, H.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sippel, R. S.
Right arrow Articles by Chen, H.

Endocrinology

Current Management of Medullary Thyroid Cancer

Rebecca S. Sippel, Muthusamy Kunnimalaiyaan, Herbert Chen

Department of Surgery, Section of Endocrine Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Key Words. Thyroid neoplasm • Medullary thyroid cancer • Multiple endocrine neoplasia • RET protein

Correspondence: Correspondence: Rebecca Sippel, M.D., Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin, H4/755 CSC, 600 Highland Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53792-7375, USA. Telephone: 608-263-1387; Fax: 608-263-7652; e-mail: sippel{at}surgery.wisc.edu

Received December 6, 2007; accepted for publication March 14, 2008.

Disclosure: No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors, planners, reviewers, or staff managers of this article.

Medullary thyroid cancer accounts for 5%–10% of all thyroid cancers. The majority of medullary thyroid cancers are sporadic, but 20% of cases are a result of a germline mutation in the ret proto-oncogene. Hereditary medullary thyroid cancer can be seen as part of the multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2A or 2B or as part of familial medullary thyroid cancer. This article discusses the current methods available for the diagnosis and evaluation of a patient with suspected medullary thyroid cancer. The management of medullary thyroid cancer is predominantly surgical excision, consisting of a total thyroidectomy and lymph node dissection. The extent and timing of surgical excision are discussed. Systemic therapeutic options are limited for medullary thyroid cancer, but several therapeutic targets show promise for the development of new therapies in the future.






HOME HELP CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE ONCOLOGIST STEM CELLS CME ALPHAMED PRESS JOURNALS
http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/subscriptions/etoc.dtl

Copyright © 2008 by AlphaMed Press.