Changes to This Summary (11/20/2012)
The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.
Added text to state that given the high incidence of BRAF mutations in older patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma, the use of selective RAF/MEK inhibitors is being investigated (cited Falchook et al. and Hayes et al. as references 88 and 89, respectively).
Added text about a number of tyrosine kinase inhibitors that have been evaluated for adult and pediatric patients with unresectable medullary thyroid cancer, including vandetanib and cabozantinib (cited Wells et al. as reference 93, Thornton et al. as reference 94, Broniscer et al. as reference 95, and Kurzrock et al. as reference 96).
Added Table 2 about the histology, associated chromosomal abnormalities, presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of thyroid carcinomas in children.
Added text to state that primary pulmonary tumors may respond to the ALK inhibitor crizotinib in the presence of ALK translocations (cited Kim et al. as reference 22 and level of evidence 3iiiDiv).
Revised text to state that malignant pancreatic tumors are rare in children and adolescents with an incidence of 0.46 cases per 1 million (cited Brecht et al. and van den Akker et al. as references 40 and 45, respectively).
Revised text to state that most malignant pancreatic tumors are carcinomas.
Added text to state that young patients have a higher incidence of sentinel node positivity and this feature adversely affects clinical outcomes (cited Mu et al. as reference 113).
Revised text to state that younger children appear to have a worse outlook than older patients (cited Yasuda et al. as reference 134).
Revised text to state that standard treatment includes surgery and external radiation therapy, often proton beam radiation (cited Yasuda et al. as reference 134 and level of evidence 3iiA).
This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.
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