Malignant tumors of thyroid follicular cell origin have been classified into well differentiated thyroid carcinoma, which is composed of papillary and follicular carcinoma, poorly differentiated carcinoma and undifferentiated (anaplastic) carcinoma The vast majority of patients with well differentiated thyroid carcinoma have an excellent prognosis regardless of the types of treatment used, whereas patients with undifferentiated carcinoma uniformly have a poor prognosis.
There is a growing evidence for the existence of a group of tumors that fall between well differentiated thyroid carcinoma and undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma in terms of both morphologic appearance and biologic behavior. These tumors, classified as poorly differentiated, may represent intermediate entities in the progression of well differentiated to undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma.
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