Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma: Current Treatments and Potential New Therapeutic Options with Emphasis on TfR1/CD71

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is one of the most aggressive human cancers. Actually, ATC is refractory to conventionaltherapies, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and radioiodine (131I) therapy. Accordingly, genetic and molecularcharacterizations of ATC have been frequently and periodically reviewed in order to identify potential biological markersexploitable for target therapy. This review briefly focuses on main molecular events that characterize ATC and provides an updateabout preclinical studies. In addition, the overexpression of transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1/CD71) by neoplastic cells of ATC isemphasized in that it could represent a potential therapeutic target. In this regard, new therapeutic approaches based on the use ofmonoclonal or recombinant antibodies, or transferrin-gallium-TfR1/CD71 molecular complexes, or lastly small interfering RNAs(siRNAs) are proposed.