Innovative in vitro chemo-hormonal drug therapy for refractory thyroid carcinomas

Abstract

More than 95% of the thyroid carcinomas are well differentiated types showing favorable prognosis. However, only a few therapeutic options are available to treat the patients with undifferentiated thyroid carcinomas, especially with refractory thyroid carcinomas that are not amenable to surgery or radioiodine ablation. We investigated the anticancer effects of 20 chemotherapy and hormonal therapy drugs on 8 thyroid carcinoma cell lines. In vitro chemosensitivity was tested using the adenosine-triphosphate-based chemotherapy response assay (ATP-CRA). The tumor inhibition rate (TIR; or cell death rate) or half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) was analyzed to interpret the results. Of the 12 chemotherapy drugs, etoposide (178.9 index value in follicular carcinoma cell line) and vincristine (211.7 in Hürthle cell carcinoma cell line) were the most active drugs showing the highest chemosensitivity, and of the 8 additional drugs, trichostatin A (0.03 µg/mL IC(50) in follicular carcinoma cell line) showed favorable outcome having the anticancer effect. In our study, the result of etoposide and vincristine show evidence as active anticancer drugs in thyroid carcinoma cell lines and trichostatin A seems be the next promising drug. These drugs may become an innovative therapy for refractory thyroid carcinomas in near future.