• International journal of thyroidology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2018

Most thyroid cancers are well-differentiated cancers and have a very good prognosis. About 10% of thyroid cancer, however, invades the surrounding tissues, causing local recurrence and distant metastasis, and eventually affecting survival rate. In locally advanced thyroid cancers, the invasion of trachea, larynx and esophagus, can be occurred by primary tumor and may also result in lymph nodes metastasis. Surgical resection is still mainstay for the treatment of locally advanced thyroid cancer. The main purpose of the surgical resection is to eliminate the cancer completely, therefore, it can cause many complications such as dysfunction of the larynx, trachea and esophagus. It can have a serious effect on the quality of life, therefore there is still controversy on the extent of the surgery. The authors compare and analyze the opinions which were already discussed in the literatures published so far. These will help to select the surgical method.

• International journal of thyroidology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.117-122
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• 2018

Metastases to regional cervical lymph nodes occur frequently in patients with thyroid cancer. The appropriate management of regional lymph node is important to achieve good disease control and to classify risk stratification for adjuvant radioactive iodine. However, there are some occasions that neck dissection is difficult and embarrassing in thyroid cancer. Especially, extensive or unusual nodal metastases bring challenges and makes neck dissection more difficult. Carotid artery management is one of the most difficult procedure in neck dissection. The management of patients who have persistent or recurrent cervical metastasis involving the carotid artery has been controversial and treatment dilemma to the surgeon. Metastasis of well differentiated thyroid cancer to the retropharyngeal lymph nodes is rare but occasionally encountered. The complete surgical excision is usually recommended for retropharyngeal lymph node metastasis of well differentiated thyroid cancer. An extensive mediastinal dissection in advanced differentiated thyroid carcinoma is occasionally required. This paper will review recent reports of management of advanced nodal metastasis of thyroid cancer and share the author's personal experience.

• International journal of thyroidology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.61-70
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• 2018

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are widely used for the treatment of advanced radioiodine-refractory thyroid cancer. Although the previous studies including large-scale randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the effects of TKIs in advanced thyroid cancers, it has been found that most patients experienced adverse events (AEs). Unlike other cancers, even patients with advanced thyroid cancers are often asymptomatic. Rather, TKI use can make patients suffer adverse events. Therefore, the use of TKI should be decided after the full consideration of AEs as well as its efficacies. While using TKI, AEs should be monitored, evaluated, and managed appropriately, if AEs develop. In this review, the occurrence, evaluation, and management of AEs of sorafenib, lenvatinib, and vandetanib will be described, which TKIs are most commonly used for the treatment of advanced thyroid cancer. Some suggestions for the management of AEs in the real life are also provided.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1155-1159
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• 1995

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma is a slow growing tumor with relative good prognosis. But locally advanced thyroid cancer with T4 or N1b is difficult to manage. Between June 1988 and April 1995, we resected 8 advanced thyroid cancers trans-sternally. All patients had direct mediastinal extension [T4 or mediastinal lymph node metastasis [N1b with airway obstruction or dysphagia. We operated all the patients by partial or total sternotomy for mediastinal dissection along with thyroidectomy and radical neck dissection. There were some acceptable morbidities but no operative mortality. Postoperative radioactive iodine therapy was followed without side effects. Follow-up survival period was between 11 months to 81 months with 2 late mortalities [17 month, 30 month . Although definite benefit for routine mediastinal dissection in thyroid cancer has not been established, in locally advanced cases impending airway obstruction or dysphagia who have questionable effect by radioactive iodine therapy alone, aggressive mediastinal mass dissection including lymph node metastasis has the significant role to prevent the patients from suffocation & dysphagia, and to enhance the effect of followed radioactive iodine tharapy.

• International journal of thyroidology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.88-91
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• 2018

After introducing tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) as promising treatments for radioactive iodine refractory advanced thyroid cancer patients, we more often meet patients with TKI-related hormone and electrolyte imbalances in clinics. Hypocalcemia associated with TKI is associated with an imbalance in calcium-vitamin D metabolism. TKI-related hypothyroidism is related to the metabolic rate of thyroid hormones. The two side effects usually occur in the early stages of TKI treatment, and if the imbalance is corrected appropriately, the effects are minor, but in severe cases, the TKI should be discontinued. The authors reported a case of severe hypocalcemia and thyroid dysfunction after TKI treatment. A 56-year-old man suffered from symptomatic hypocalcemia during TKI treatment, which was resolved after he stopped taking the TKI medication. Although calcium and vitamin D replacement have increased, hypocalcemia was recurred and TKI treatments have been permanently stopped due to serious weight loss in grade 3. After the interruption, his calcium levels normalized.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

Thyroid cancer is one of the slow-growing tumors with excellent oncological outcomes. However, a small set of patients with unexpectedly severe outcomes are usually ignored. Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) remains one of the most aggressive and lethal solid tumors. Recently, dabrafenib and trametinib combination therapy or neoadjuvant BRAF induction therapy has shown promising results. In addition, a combination of targeted drugs, immunotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy can improve overall survival in ATC patients. Another disease for which there is no breakthrough treatment is radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). To date, multikinase inhibitors (sorafenib, lenvatinib) targeting the growth factor signaling pathway have been developed and approved as anticancer agents for patients with advanced DTC. This review includes results from multikinase inhibitors to the emergence of new target molecules, including rearrangements during transformation (RET) and tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK).

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.551-561
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• 2021

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancers, such as papillary and follicular cancers, have a favorable prognosis. However, poorly differentiated thyroid cancers, such as medullary, squamous and anaplastic advanced thyroid cancers, are very aggressive and insensitive to radioiodine treatment. Thus, novel therapies that attenuate metastasis are urgently needed. We found that both PDGFC and PDGFRA are predominantly expressed in thyroid cancers and that the survival rate is significantly lower in patients with high PDGFRA expression. This finding indicates the important role of PDGF/PDGFR signaling in thyroid cancer development. Next, we established a SW579 squamous thyroid cancer cell line with 95.6% PDGFRA gene insertion and deletions (indels) through CRISPR/Cas9. Protein and invasion analysis showed a dramatic loss in EMT marker expression and metastatic ability. Furthermore, xenograft tumors derived from PDGFRA geneedited SW579 cells exhibited a minor decrease in tumor growth. However, distant lung metastasis was completely abolished upon PDGFRA gene editing, implying that PDGFRA could be an effective target to inhibit distant metastasis in advanced thyroid cancers. To translate this finding to the clinic, we used the most relevant multikinase inhibitor, imatinib, to inhibit PDGFRA signaling. The results showed that imatinib significantly suppressed cell growth, induced cell cycle arrest and cell death in SW579 cells. Our developed noninvasive apoptosis detection sensor (NIADS) indicated that imatinib induced cell apoptosis through caspase-3 activation. In conclusion, we believe that developing a specific and selective targeted therapy for PDGFRA would effectively suppress PDGFRA-mediated cancer aggressiveness in advanced thyroid cancers.

• Korean Journal of Bronchoesophagology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2002

Advanced or recurrent thyroid cancer, and metastatic paratracheal lymph nodes may directly invade the trachea and lead to tracheal stenosis. In these cases the stenosis is not circumferential and it would be possible to reconstruct the trachea after partial resection of the stenotic trachea. We experienced five cases of tracheal reconstruction after partial resection of the tracheal wall in four Patients of advanced thyroid cancer, and in one Patient of malignant paratracheal lymphadenopathy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3477-3482
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• 2016

Background: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, and exact causes remain unknown. The role of CYP450 1A1 (CYP1A1) in cancer initiation and progression has been investigated. The aim of this work was to analyze, for the first time, CYP1A1 gene expression and its relationship with several clinicopathological factors in Mexican patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Materials and Methods: Real-time PCR analysis was conducted on 32 sets of thyroid tumors and benign pathologies. Expression levels were tested for correlations with clinical and pathological data. All statistical analysis were performed using GraphPad Prism version 3.0 software. Results: We found that female gender was associated with thyroid cancer risk (P<0.05). A positive relationship was identified between CYP1A1 mRNA levels and the presence of chronic disease, alcohol use, tumor size, metastasis and an advanced clinical stage (P<0.05). Conclusions: The results suggest that CYP1A1 gene expression could be used as a marker for thyroid cancer.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.79-89
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• 2012

Objective : This study was conducted to evaluate of efficacy and safety of Vanadium Water (VW) on Cancer related Fatigue of Non-advanced Cancer Patients. Methods : Experimental Group Administration. Participants in treatment group consumed three 500 ml/bottle bottles of Jeju Island's VW, which contains 40.2 ${\mu}g/L$ of vanadium, three times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) for 4 weeks (28 days) without any additional treatments for fatigue improvement. The control group participants consumed three 500 ml/bottle bottles of ordinary water (0 ${\mu}g/L$ of vanadium) three times a day for the same period of time without any additional treatments for fatigue improvement. Results : After 4 weeks of VW consumption, total score of Revised Piper Fatigue Scale (RPFS) was reduced 30% and basal score after Fisher's Exact Test resulted statistical borderline significance (p=0.0799) and result of t-test of comparison between two groups' RPFS total score and fatigue cognitive/mood changes resulted statistical significance (p=0.0112). In detail, only 36.4% of control group (N=11) showed improvement while 77.8% of treatment group (N=9) showed fatigue improvement and thyroid hormone level changes. No other lab measures indicated any significant differences between two groups. Conclusion : Daily consumption of 1.5 L of Vanadium water for 4 weeks showed improvement of non-advanced cancer patients' fatigue.