About this study
The LANTERN clinical trial studies a new way to treat differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) that has spread to the lungs. Right now, the usual treatment is surgery followed by radioactive iodine therapy. Radioactive iodine is a common treatment for thyroid cancer. But this treatment does not always work well. Many times, the patient’s cancer does not go away. Some patients develop lung problems or other cancers later on.
This clinical trial is for patients who have advanced DTC and a gene change called an NTRK fusion. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a drug called larotrectinib for people with cancers who have NTRK fusions. Doctors want to see if using this drug before treatment with radioactive iodine therapy will improve outcomes.
Patients will take larotrectinib for 6 months before receiving radioactive iodine. They will also keep medication diaries to track their treatment. After they finish taking the drug, the study team will continue to collect medical information for up to 5 years to see how well the treatment worked.
Patients can also choose to join a sub-study that involves following a special low-iodine diet and having an extra whole-body scan. The patients will also receive a drug called thyrogen and a small dose of radioactive iodine before the scan. Doctors will review the scan to see how much radioactive iodine the tumor has absorbed after 4–6 weeks of taking larotrectinib.
LANTERN gives patients with advanced thyroid cancer a chance to try a new treatment that might work better than RAI therapy alone.
Eligibility overview
- Differentiated thyroid cancer
- Age 1 year and older
- Presence of an NTRK fusion
- Metastatic disease in the lungs