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Anaplastic Carcinoma

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Pathology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Pathology ((EP))

  • 49 Accesses

Synonyms

Carcinosarcoma; Giant cell carcinoma; Metaplastic carcinoma; Pleomorphic carcinoma; Sarcomatoid carcinoma; Spindle cell carcinoma; Undifferentiated carcinoma

Definition

Anaplastic carcinoma (AC) is a high grade follicular-derived carcinoma with pleomorphic features.

Clinical Features

  • Incidence

    It is a very rare tumor. It constitutes less than 5% of all thyroid malignancies.

  • Age

    It usually affects elderly people, with a mean age in the mid-60s.

  • Sex

    The female-to-male ratio is 2:1 (El Naggar et al. 2017).

  • Site

    It generally presents as a bulk, involving both thyroid lobes and extrathyroid tissue.

  • Treatment

    Most AC are unresectable at diagnosis; however, a surgical approach could be considered in selected patients (El Naggar et al. 2017). Therapy is often multimodal, consisting of surgery, systemic therapy, and/or radiation therapy, because AC often responds poorly to single-modality therapy (Haddad et al. 2018).

  • Outcome

    Despite its rarity, it accounts for more than half of the...

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References and Further Reading

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pathology Unit, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova, Azienda USL-IRCCS Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Simonetta Piana

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  1. Simonetta Piana
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Correspondence to Simonetta Piana .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands

    J.H.J.M. van Krieken

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Piana, S. (2020). Anaplastic Carcinoma. In: van Krieken, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5259-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5259-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

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