In the U.S., thyroid cancer is a common endocrine malignancy with about 52,890 new cases per year, according to the American Cancer Society. Most patients see a favorable response to surgery and risk-adapted postoperative therapy with thyroid hormone suppression and radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy, with external beam radiation therapy added in select high-risk situations. However, there is a subset of patients with aggressive and less-differentiated thyroid cancer resistant to RAI therapy, and unfortunately, these patients ultimately succumb to their illness. Treatment options are limited and their overall prognosis is poor.
Scientists at UC San Francisco identified an unmet clinical need for improved therapies for patients with aggressive forms of thyroid cancer that do not respond to RAI therapy. Right now, agents targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) are…
