NTRK-fusions in pediatric thyroid tumors: Current state and future perspectives

•Somatic NTRK1 and NTRK3 fusions have high specificity for papillary thyroid cancer.•In pediatric PTC, NTRK fusions are associated with a high rate of regional and distant metastases.•Future studies needed to develop clinically relevant pediatric models of thyroid cancer. Pediatric and adult papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) share many similar oncogenic drivers, but differ in the pathological features and outcomes of the disease. The most frequent genetic alterations in adult PTCs are mutually exclusive point mutations in BRAF or the RAS family. In pediatric PTC, fusion oncogenes involving chromosomal translocations in tyrosine kinase (TK) receptors, most commonly RET and NTRK, are the most common genetic alterations observed. This review of the literature describes the current state of translational research in pediatric NTRK-driven thyroid cancer and highlights opportunities to improve our understanding and current models of pediatric PTC.