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Update on the molecular diagnosis and targeted therapy of thyroid cancer

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Abstract

Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy with steadily increasing incidence over the past few decades. Although standard strategies for the management of TC offer optimal outcomes in TC patients with favorable histological types at early stage, challenges arising from diagnosis and therapy still exist during clinical practice. A number of genetic alterations have been described in thyroid cancer, which provides an unprecedented opportunity for the identification of novel diagnostic and prognostic molecular markers as well as novel therapeutic targets. Molecular-targeted therapies, which have been investigated recently with increasing success, may prove to be a breakthrough in patients with advanced, radioiodine-refractory thyroid cancers. This review summarizes the latest progression in molecular diagnosis and targeted therapy of TC.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81271609) and Shanghai Rising-Star Program (12QH1401600).

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  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai, 200233, People’s Republic of China

    Min Liu, Maomei Ruan & Libo Chen

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  1. Min Liu
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Correspondence to Libo Chen.

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Liu, M., Ruan, M. & Chen, L. Update on the molecular diagnosis and targeted therapy of thyroid cancer. Med Oncol 31, 973 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-014-0973-9

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