Treatment of Parathyroid Cancer: Current Status and Near-Term Prospects

Abstract

Parathyroid cancer (PС) is a rare malignant neoplasm of the endocrine system, characterized by a severe course due to the development of life-threatening hypercalcemia. Despite a relatively high survival rate, recurrence occurs about half the time. The aggressive course of PС is associated with both local spread of the process and distant metastasis. With the exception of isolated cases, cytotoxic chemo- and radiotherapy are inefficacious, and treatment protocols have not been developed. Therefore the only effective way is the surgical removal of secondary lesions, which is not always technically feasible and is associated with a high risk of postoperative complications. The literature describes individual cases of successful use of targeted therapy, as well as immunotherapy in the form of therapeutic vaccination to induce an immune response against parathyroid hormone (PTH) and block immune checkpoint. A promising direction of study is the tumor immunoenvironment, which has both diagnostic and prognostic value in relation to the likelihood of the spread of the tumor process. In this review, we describe the main directions in the treatment of PC, including disseminated forms, the possibilities of immunotherapy will be considered in details.