Efficacy and Safety of Vandetanib in Progressive and Symptomatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer: Post Hoc Analysis From the ZETA Trial.

Purpose: We conducted a post hoc analysis of the vandetanib phase III trial involving patients with advanced medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) to assess the efficacy and safety of vandetanib in patients with progressive and symptomatic MTC. The primary objective of the analysis was to determine progression-free survival (PFS) of these patients.

Patients And Methods: Eligible patients from the ZETA trial were divided into 4 disease severity subgroups: progression and symptoms, symptoms only, progression only, and no progression and no symptoms assessed at baseline.

Twenty-Five Years Experience on RET Genetic Screening on Hereditary MTC: An Update on The Prevalence of Germline RET Mutations.

Background: Pathogenic germline mutations affecting the proto-oncogene underlie the development of hereditary medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of germline mutations in a large series of MTC, collected over the last 25 years, and to reappraise their clinical significance.

Methods: We performed genetic screening in 2031 Italian subjects: patients who presented with sporadic (n = 1264) or hereditary (n = 117) MTC, plus 650 relatives.

Differential expression of RET isoforms in normal thyroid tissues, papillary and medullary thyroid carcinomas.

Pourposes: We investigated the expression of RET9 and RET51 isoforms in medullary (MTC), papillary (PTC) thyroid carcinoma, normal thyroid tissues, and pheochromocytoma (PHEO) to verify if these isoforms are present also in follicular thyroid cell-derived tissues, and if there is a differential expression of RET9 and RET51 in MTC.

Methods: Nineteen patients with MTC, 18 patients with PTC, 18 samples of contralateral normal thyroid tissues, and 5 cases of PHEO were included in this study. RET isoform expression was studied by real-time RT-PCR.