Anaplastic thyroid cancer: a review of epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment.

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is an uncommon malignancy of the thyroid. Only 1-2% of thyroid cancers are anaplastic, but the disease contributes to 14-50% of the mortality with a median survival of 3 to 5 months. Most patients diagnosed with this disease are 65 years of age or older.