Personalized Medicine: Mutation Detection in Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, with an incidence that has been rising rapidly since the early 1990’s, and is the fastest increasing cancer in both men and women1 . An estimated 64,300 cases are to be diagnosed in 2016, with a projected few thousand deaths. Although the prognosis for various thyroid cancers is generally positive, with a 5-year survival rate of 98%, tumor recurrence occurs in up to 20% of patients2 . If distant tumors reoccur the survival rate plummets to 40%2 . In this study, I elucidate a mechanism to detect these cancers earlier with greatly increased sensitivity. This mechanism is not specific to thyroid cancer, and can be implemented in the early diagnosis of other mutations as well. Drugs may be created as alternative therapies to be used in the clinic, instead of chemotherapy and radiation, the most common cancer treatment. If successful, these drugs posses the potential for longer and greater quality of life for cancer patients.