Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors and Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Background/Aim: Papillary Thyroid Cancer (PTC) is the most common type of endocrine malignancy. Although PTC has an excellent prognosis, the recurrent or metastatic disease could affect patients' survival. Recent studies show that Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (HDACIs) might be promising anticancer agents against PTC. The aim of this review is to evaluate the role of HDACIs as an additional modality in PTC treatment and to depict the latest trends of current research on this field. Materials and Methods: This literature review was performed using the MEDLINE database. The search strategy included terms: “thyroid cancer”, “papillary”, “HDAC”, “histone”, and “deacetylase”. Results: Agents, such as Suberoyl Anilide Hydroxamic Acid, Trichostatin A, Valproic Acid, Sodium butyrate, Panobinostat, Belinostat, Romidepsin, CUDC907 and N-Hydroxy-7-(2-naphthylthio)-Hepanomide have shown promising anti-cancer effects on PTC cell lines but fail to trigger a major response in clinical trials. Conclusion: HDACIs have no significant effect as monotherapy against PTC, but further research needs to be conducted in order to investigate their potential effect when used as an additional modality.