Research article

Prognostic parameters for recurrence of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma

Tae Yong Kim^{* 1} , Suck Joon Hong^{* 2} , Jung Min Kim⁶ , Won Gu Kim¹ , Gyungyub Gong³ , Jin Sook Ryu⁴ , Won Bae Kim¹ , Sung-Cheol Yun⁵ and Young Kee Shong¹

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

²Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

³Pathology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁴Nuclear Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁵Division of Biostatistics, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁶Research Institute and Hospital, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Gyeonggi, Korea

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

BMC Cancer 2008, 8:296doi:10.1186/1471-2407-8-296

Published:	14 October 2008

Abstract

Background

Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) is defined as a papillary thyroid carcinoma less than or equal to 1.0 cm in size. Independent prognostic factors for clinical recurrence of PTMC have not been clearly delineated.

Methods

Clinicopathological parameters predicting PTMC recurrence were determined by retrospective analysis of 307 patients.

Results

Of the 293 patients eligible for analysis, 14 (5%) had recurrence during a median follow-up time of 65 months. Recurrence was observed in 8 of 166 patients (0.5%) treated with total or near-total thyroidectomy; gender (P = 0.02) and presence of lateral cervical node metastases at initial surgery (P = 0.01) were associated with recurrence. Six of the 127 patients (0.5%) treated with hemi- or subtotal thyroidectomy experience recurrences, but no significant prognostic factor for recurrence was identified. Multivariate Cox-regression analysis showed that gender and cervical lymph node metastasis were significant variables

Conclusion

PTMC showed very diverse disease extent and could not be regarded as indolent, relatively benign disease based on the primary tumor size. The extent of surgery should be based on prognostic parameters, such as gender and lateral neck node metastasis, in patients with PTMC.