Background: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is an aggressive thyroid malignancy that is associated with poor prognosis. Current treatment options include surgery, radiation, cytotoxic chemotherapy, and multikinase inhibitor therapy. The role of immunotherapy in ATC is an area of active interest and recent evidence suggests that it may be a potentially effective treatment option. Methods: We report a case series of 13 patients with locally advanced or metastatic unresectable ATC who received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy (pembrolizumab or nivolumab) at a single institution. Results: The patients' median age was 70 years, 54% (7/13) were male, and 85% (11/13) had stage IVC disease with lungs and lymph nodes being the most common sites of metastases. Ten patients had tumor tissue available for programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression testing, all of which were positive for PD-L1, and seven of these patients also had a BRAFV600E mutation. The median progression-free survival was 1.9 months and median overall survival (OS) was 4.4 months. The objective response rate was 16% (2/13). Two patients had partial response (PR), and three patients had durable stable disease. Among patients with a clinical benefit, after a median follow-up of 13.5 months, median OS had not been reached (range 4+ to 29+ months). Responses were ongoing in four subjects. The one-year survival rate was 38% (5/13). Six patients (46%) experienced an immune-related adverse event, and 15% (2/13) experienced a grade 3 or higher adverse event, including one patient with grade 5 immune checkpoint-related thyroiditis. Conclusions: Immune checkpoint blockade was well tolerated with a toxicity profile consistent with published literature on PD-1/PD-L1-targeting therapies. For ATC patients, immune checkpoint inhibition may represent an effective treatment option with robust sustained responses seen in a subset of patients.
Keywords: anaplastic thyroid carcinoma; checkpoint blockade; immunotherapy; pembrolizumab.