Introduction
thyroid malignancies, thyroid cancer-related deaths, extranodal
MALIGNANT TUMOUR, DISEASE, METASTASES, MEDULLARY THYROID CANCER (MTC)
Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare malignant tumour of the parafollicular C-cells. A noticeable increase in the incidence of MTC is currently observed; although it constitutes only about 5% of thyroid malignancies, it is responsible for approximately 13% of all thyroid cancer-related deaths [While surgery consisting of total thyroidectomy and central or modified radical neck dissection is performed in patients without extranodal and/or distant disease with a curative intent, up to 50% of patients experience disease relapse with the development of regional or distant metastases or are already diagnosed initially with advanced disease [With the overexpression of cholecystokinin-2 receptors (CCK2R)/gastrin receptors on the membrane of MTC cells, novel radiopharmaceuticals with high affinity to these receptors represent a potential effective tool for molecular diagnostics and therapy. A variety of CCK2 receptor-binding peptides were studied in the last three decades as ligands for radionuclide imaging and targeted therapy [In this report, the final clinical results of the translational study GRAN-T-MTC are presented — a Phase I multicentre clinical trial of the indium-111 (