Addressing Unmet Needs in Medullary Thyroid Cancer

Rozita Yarmand, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders-Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses unmet needs in medullary thyroid cancer.

In medullary thyroid cancer, there is an activating missense mutation in the RET tyrosine kinase receptor, Yarmand says. As such, RET is active in the neuroendocrine tissue that normally expresses this protein. This suggests that RET is a prognostic indicator and an oncogene in medullary thyroid cancer.

The current standard of care for this disease includes multikinase TKIs like cabozantinib (Cabometyx) and vandetanib (Caprelsa). However, patients only have partial responses to these drugs and develop resistance rather quickly. Yarmand concludes there is a need for a novel compound with less toxicity and more durable responses than the currently available TKIs.