With the neoadjuvant regimen of pembrolizumab added to dabrafenib and trametinib, survival in BRAF-mutated forms of the highly aggressive cancer can go from months to more than 5 years.
Among patients with unresectable anaplastic thyroid cancer treated with lenvatinib, average survival was prolonged. The study was published as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.
The double mutations correlate with 10-times higher mortality in differentiated thyroid cancer, but some question the prognostic value of molecular diagnostics.
All patients with advanced thyroid disease and most patients with incurable radioiodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer should undergo somatic mutational testing, say experts.