INTRODUCTION

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    Carcinoma Research
    Consortium of Japan （ATCCJ）

Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Research Consortium of Japan （ATCCJ）

Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Research Consortium of Japan (ATCCJ) was established in 2009 aiming to a) accumulate clinical data of ATC nationwide and to form authentic large database, b) conduct nationwide clinical trials, c) collaborate with basic scientists. The precise clinical data, including the therapeutic methods and outcome, of over 1,200 cases from 59 institutes had been accumulated in December 2015 to form the world largest database of ATC.



By analyzing the data, the 6 months disease specific survival was calculated as 60, 45, and 19% in stage IVA, B, and C disease, respectively. Age over 70, acute symptoms, leukocytosis, and tumor diameter over 5 cm, extrathyroidal invasion, and distant metastasis were revealed to be significantly poorer prognostic factors [1]. Survival after surgery was significantly better when curative resection was accomplished [2], or when the disease was observed incidentally during pathological examination after surgery [3]. Extra-beam radiation therapy contributed longer survival. At the same time we found that there were considerable numbers of cases misdiagnosed and treated as ATC. Those cases commonly survived long after treatments [4]. The information should be important for conducting therapeutic strategy.



Still, the meaning of chemotherapy was controversial. Therefore, a nationwide prospective clinical study to evaluate the feasibility of weekly paclitaxel administration was conducted [5]. The entrée ended on March 2014, and the data was presented in ITC 2015 at Orlando [6].



We are planning for new clinical trials, and for establishing tissue bank at this moment.

  1. Sugitani I, Miyauchi A, Sugino K, Okamoto T, Yoshida A, Suzuki S. Prognostic factors and treatment outcomes for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: ATC Research Consortium of Japan cohort study of 677 patients. World J Surg. 2012 Jun; 36(6):1247-54. doi: 10.1007/s00268-012-1437-z
  2. Sugitani I, Hasegawa Y, Sugasawa M, Tori M, Higashiyama T, Miyazaki M, Hosoi H, Orita Y, Kitano H. Super-radical surgery for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: a large cohort study using the Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Research Consortium of Japan database.Head Neck. 2014 Mar; 36(3):328-33. doi: 10.1002/hed.23295.
  3. Yoshida A, Sugino K, Sugitani I, Miyauchi A. Anaplastic thyroid carcinomas incidentally found on postoperative pathological examination. World J Surg. 2014 Sep; 38(9):2311-6. doi: 10.1007/s00268-014-2536-9.
  4. Hirokawa M, et al. Histopathological analysis of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma cases with long-term survival: A report from the Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Research Consortium of Japan. Paper submitted to Endocr J.
  5. Onoda N, Sugitani I, Higashiyama T, Hara H, Ito K, Kammori M, Sugino K, Suzuki S, Toda K, Yoshida A, Miyauchi A. Concept and design of a nationwide prospective feasibility/efficacy/safety study of weekly paclitaxel for patients with pathologically confirmed anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATCCJ-PTX-P2). BMC Cancer. 2015 Jun 20; 15:475. doi: 10.1186/s12885-015-1490-8.
  6. Onoda N, Sugino K, Higashiyama T, Kammori M, Ito K, Yoshida A, Suzuki S, Hara H, Miyauchi A, Sugitani I. WEEKLY PACLITAXEL ADMINISTRATION IN PATIENTS WITH ANAPLASTIC THYROID CARCINOMA. A NATIONWIDE PROSPECTIVE CLINICAL STUDY. Thyroid. October 2015, 25(S1):A360. (Onoda N, et al. paper submitted.)