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Thyroid carcinoma is the most common endocrine cancer representing 1-1.5% of all cancers diagnosed annually. Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) with the 2 main subtypes, papillary (PTC) and follicular (FTC), is the most common. DTC incidence has increased significantly in recent years, mainly due to increased and early use of imaging techniques (thyroid ultrasonography) and fine needle biopsy of thyroid nodules. Although after radical treatment, DTC is considered to be curable, histologic and clinical presentation is very diverse, the recurrence rate being 10-30%, while 5% of patients are resistant to conventional therapy, and some are even incurable. In recent years, there has been progress in terms of describing genetic changes in thyroid carcinoma, genetic testing providing important information that may influence therapeutic decision. The practical importance of these genetic mutations (for example, BRAF V600E, RAS, etc.) and their roles in tumorigenesis, the clinical features, treatment and prognosis of thyroid carcinoma is still controversial and incompletely elucidated.The increase knowledge of molecular pathogenesis and tumorigenesis in thyroid cancer lead to the emergence of new therapies with targeted antitumor effect and minimal toxicity. Patient selection should be made taking into account the risk stratification and tangible benefits, molecular tests being expensive and inaccessible.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and a steroid hormone with endocrine, paracrine and autocrine actions. The two major forms are vitamin D2 (ergocalcifeol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), the active hormone being calcitriol. The importance of vitamin D and its metabolites lies in the key role in calcium homeostasis and bone metabolism but vitamin D also has extraskeletal effects, still incompletely understood. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) is ubiquitous in the body, the presence of VDR in multiple tissues suggesting a more general role of calcitriol. Vitamin D can regulate many cellular functions such as cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Calcitriol exerts immunomodulating and antiproliferative effects and plays a potential role in the prevention and therapy of various cancers (breast, colorectal, prostate, thyroid), autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, thyroid autoimmunity), obesity and also in cardiovascular, renal, maternal-fetal pathologies. Conclusions. The current studies bring increasingly more evidence about the benefits of vitamin D supplementation in extraskeletal pathology although there is no agreed protocol in this regard. However, these patients should be considered for adequate intake of vitamin D for the prevention, improving the evolution and the prognosis of their disease.

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