Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Cancer, Somatostatin Analogues and Markers

Background: Medullary Thyroid Carcinomas (MTC) are rare tumors that occur either sporadically or in a familiar form. It comprises 5-10% of all thyroid cancers. Except for some new drugs of tyrosine kinase inhibitors family that are effective in metastatic disease, multiple conventional chemotherapeutic regimens have been used without significant success and treatment with somatostatin analogues is still discussed. Patients and methods: We report our experience of alternating treatment with somatostatin analogues Octreotide and Lanreotide in metastatic MTC. In the period June 2011-May 2012 seven patients with medullary thyroid cancer were treated. We have evaluated clinical and biochemical response according to CEA, Calcitonin, Chromogranin A, and NSE levels after six courses of alternated therapy. Results: The treatment was well tolerated, however, clear evidence of the clinical/biochemistry/radiological efficacy has not been