Abstract
Vandetanib for aggressive and symptomatic medullary thyroid cancer
Author(s): Hari A Deshpande, Tobias Carling, Nabeela Khan, Elizabeth Holt5 Medullary thyroid cancer accounts for less than 10% of all thyroid cancers.
Aggressive metastatic forms of this disease however, are incurable and can cause significant
symptoms including diarrhea and pain. Hereditary and some sporadic forms of the disease
are characterized by a mutation of the proto-oncogene RET. This results in an abnormal growth
factor receptor that, in turn, allows the malignant cells to survive and metastasize. New tyrosine
kinase inhibitors have been shown to effectively target RET in vitro. One of the first of these
agents, vandetanib, has been evaluated in international Phase II and III clinical trials. In 2011,
vandetanib became the first agent approved by the US FDA for use in metastatic medullary
thyroid cancer. This article examines the clinical use of this agent