Thyroid. 2023 Nov 2. doi: 10.1089/thy.2023.0456. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Redifferentiation therapy (RDT) can restore radioactive iodine (RAI) uptake in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) cells to enable salvage I-131 therapy for previously RAI refractory (RAIR) disease. This study evaluated the clinical outcomes of patients that underwent RDT and identified clinicopathologic characteristics predictive of RAI restoration following RDT.
METHODS: This is a retrospective case series of 33 patients with RECIST-progressive metastatic RAIR-DTC who underwent RDT between 2017 and 2022 at the Mayo Clinic Rochester. All patients underwent genomic profiling and received MEK, RET or ALK inhibitors alone or combination BRAF-MEK inhibitors for 4 weeks. At week 3, those with increased RAI avidity in metastatic foci received high dose I-131 therapy. Baseline and clinicopathologic outcomes were comprehensively reviewed.
RESULTS: Of the 33 patients, 57.6% had restored RAI uptake following RDT (Redifferentiated subgroup). 42.1% (8/19) with papillary thyroid cancers (PTC), 100% (4/4) with invasive encapsulated follicular variant PTCs (IEFV-PTC), and 100% (7/7) with follicular thyroid cancers (FTC) redifferentiated. All (11/11) RAS mutant tumors redifferentiated compared to 38.9% (7/18) with BRAF mutant disease (6 PTC and 1 IEFV-PTC). 76.5% (13/17) of redifferentiated and 66.7% (8/12) of non-redifferentiated patients achieved a best overall RECIST response of stable disease (SD) or non-complete response/non-progressive disease. Both subgroups had a median 12% tumor shrinkage at three weeks on drug(s) alone. The redifferentiated subgroup, following high dose I-131 therapy, achieved an additional median 20% tumor reduction at 6 months after RDT. There were no statistically significant differences between both groups in progression free survival (PFS), time to initiation of systemic therapy and time to any additional therapy. Of the entire cohort, 6.1% (2/33) experienced histologic transformation to anaplastic thyroid cancer and 15.1% (5/33) died, all had redifferentiated following RDT and received I-131 therapy.
CONCLUSION: RDT has the potential to restore RAI avidity and induce RECIST responses following I-131 therapy in select patients with RAIR-DTC, particularly those with RAS-driven ‘follicular’ phenotypes. In patients with PTC, none of the evaluated clinical outcomes differed statistically between the redifferentiated and non-redifferentiated subgroups. Further studies are needed to better characterize the long-term survival and/or safety outcomes of high-dose RAI following RDT, particularly whether it could be associated with histologic anaplastic transformation.
PMID:37917101 | DOI:10.1089/thy.2023.0456
