Reports in Thyroid Research

There are various definitions of the term in the literature: Thyroid Carcinoma Occult". According to the most recent online version of the Merriam- Webster dictionary, "occult carcinoma" means "not manifest or detectable by clinical methods alone" as well as "not present in macroscopic amounts." The phrase "occult primary malignancy" is defined as "unknown primary malignancy that is symptomless, which first manifests itself as metastases or secondary paraneoplastic phenomena" in the 2002 edition of the McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine.

A group of cancers with very different phenotypes make up thyroid carcinoma. The identification of genetic, epigenetic and non-genetic factors that contribute to the heterogeneity of these cancers has been advancing as a result of recent advancements in biological technologies. In this review article, we talk about new findings that are making it easier to find new therapeutic targets and expanding our knowledge of the biology of thyroid cancer. The underlying biology and phenotypic characteristics of various thyroid cancer subtypes are examined. We focus on genetic and epigenetic factors, characteristics of cancer stemness and tumor microenvironments in our discussion of recent findings regarding the heterogeneity of thyroid cancer and the crucial mechanisms that contribute to the heterogeneity.