Most thyroid cancers respond well to common treatments, but a small number may need other options or newer treatments.
Targeted therapy
This drug treatment attacks specific features of cancer cells, to stop the cancer growing and spreading. It is given as a daily tablet, which you take for several years. Targeted therapy may be suggested if RAI treatment isn’t working.
It may also be available on clinical trials for rare or aggressive thyroid cancers.
Chemotherapy
This may be used in combination with radiation therapy to treat anaplastic thyroid cancer or when advanced thyroid cancer has not responded to RAI treatment or targeted therapy.
Chemotherapy is given by injection into a vein (intravenously), with the number of sessions and length of treatment varying from person to person.
Immunotherapy
This is a drug treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. It’s not commonly used for most thyroid cancers, but may be available through clinical trials for anaplastic thyroid cancer.
Radiopeptide therapy
This radioactive nuclear medicine may be available through clinical trials for advanced medullary thyroid cancer. A protein (peptide) combined with a small amount of radioactive substance (radionuclide) is given intravenously, through a needle into a vein. It targets cancer cells and delivers a high dose of radiation that kills or damages them. It is also called peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT).
Learn more about surgery, targeted therapy, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, and their side effects.
Watch this short video to learn more about chemotherapy.
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A/Prof Diana Learoyd, Endocrinologist, GenesisCare North Shore, St Leonards and University of Sydney, NSW; Sally Brooks, Senior Pharmacist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Monica Kwaczynski, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council WA; Susan Leonard, Clinical Nurse Consultant – Thyroid Cancer, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, QLD; Juliette O’Brien OAM, Consumer; Jonathan Park, Consumer; A/Prof Robert Parkyn, Breast and Endocrine Surgeon, St Andrew’s Hospital and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, SA; A/Prof David Pattison, Director, Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Services, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, QLD.
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