Prognosis for Thyroid Cancer

Prognosis for Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma

As noted previously, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is a very aggressive form of thyroid cancer that tends to spread into the neck and to distant sites such as the lungs, bone, and brain. Most commonly, it affects women over the age of 50 and only rarely occurs in younger people. Unfortunately, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is rarely cured and is almost always fatal. The median survival time from diagnosis is about 3 to 7 months and only about 20% of patients survive for 1-year.