Comparison of prognostic scoring systems in follicular thyroid cancer

Clinical, Pathological, and Immunohistochemical Predictors of Cause-Specific Mortality in Papillary Thyroid Cancer: Multivariate Analysis

The association of clinical, pathological, and immunohistochemical characteristics of papillary thyroid cancer with cause-specific mortality was analyzed in a case-control study within a cohort of patients from the Altai Regional Oncology Center. According to multivariate analysis, the independent predictors of fatal outcome within 10 years after surgery in patients living in Altai region are nuclear pattern of Hsp70 expression, thyroid capsular invasion, Ki-67 expression index >7%, and patient's age >45 years for men and >50 years for women. The prognostic model based on these features contributes to a significant improvement in the individual prognostic performance for papillary thyroid cancer in the modeling sample. The model has high statistical significance (χ2=64.73; p<0.001) and discriminative power (AUC=0.950, prediction accuracy 88.5%).

Multi-Omics and Management of Follicular Carcinoma of the Thyroid

Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is the second most common cancer of the thyroid gland, accounting for up to 20% of all primary malignant tumors in iodine-replete areas. The diagnostic work-up, staging, risk stratification, management, and follow-up strategies in patients who have FTC are modeled after those of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), even though FTC is more aggressive. FTC has a greater propensity for haematogenous metastasis than PTC. Furthermore, FTC is a phenotypically and genotypically heterogeneous disease. The diagnosis and identification of markers of an aggressive FTC depend on the expertise and thoroughness of pathologists during histopathological analysis. An untreated or metastatic FTC is likely to de-differentiate and become poorly differentiated or undifferentiated and resistant to standard treatment. While thyroid lobectomy is adequate for the treatment of selected patients who have low-risk FTC, it is not advisable for patients whose tumor is larger than 4 cm in diameter or has extensive extra-thyroidal extension. Lobectomy is also not adequate for tumors that have aggressive mutations. Although the prognosis for over 80% of PTC and FTC is good, nearly 20% of the tumors behave aggressively. The introduction of radiomics, pathomics, genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and liquid biopsy have led to improvements in the understanding of tumorigenesis, progression, treatment response, and prognostication of thyroid cancer. The article reviews the challenges that are encountered during the diagnostic work-up, staging, risk stratification, management, and follow-up of patients who have FTC. How the application of multi-omics can strengthen decision-making during the management of follicular carcinoma is also discussed.

A Narrative Review of Preventive Central Lymph Node Dissection in Patients With Papillary Thyroid Cancer - A Necessity or an Excess

Objective

This review article summarises the latest evidence for preventive central lymph node dissection in patients with papillary thyroid cancer taking into account the possible complications and risk of recurrence.

Background

Papillary thyroid cancer is the most frequent histological variant of malignant neoplasms of the thyroid gland. It accounts for about 80-85% of all cases of thyroid cancer. Despite good postoperative results and an excellent survival rate in comparison with many other malignant diseases, tumor metastases to the cervical lymph nodes are frequent. Most researchers agree that the presence of obvious metastases in the lymph nodes requires careful lymph node dissection. It was suggested to perform preventive routine lymphadenectomy in all patients with malignant thyroid diseases referred to surgery.

Methods

It was performed the literature review using the “papillary thyroid cancer”, “central lymph node dissection”, “hypocalcemia”, “recurrent laryngeal nerve paresis”, “metastasis”, “cancer recurrence” along with the MESH terms. The reference list of the articles was carefully reviewed as a potential source of information. The search was based on Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, eLibrary engines. Selected publications were analyzed and their synthesis was used to write the review and analyse the role of preventive central lymph node dissection in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

Conclusions

The necessity of preventive central lymph node dissection in patients with differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma is still controversial. There is much evidence that it increases the frequency of transient hypocalcemia. Due to the fact that this complication is temporary, its significance in clinical practice is debatable. It can also be assumed that an extant of surgery in the neck area is associated with an increased risk of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury. However, most studies indicate that this injury is associated more with thyroidectomy itself than with lymph node dissection. Recurrent laryngeal nerve dysfunction is also a temporary complication in the vast majority of cases. At the same time, a large amount of data shows that central lymph node dissection reduces the risk of thyroid cancer recurrence in two times.

Optimal cutoff values of primary tumour size to better predict long-term outcomes in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma undergoing total thyroidectomy: A preliminary study using restricted cubic spline analysis

OBJECTIVE

Primary tumour size (PTS) is known to be a significant prognostic factor in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) undergoing thyroidectomy. Although cutoff values of 2 and 4 cm are widely used in surgical extent decision and long-term outcomes predictions, the effectiveness of arbitrary cutoff values in stratifying patients for target outcomes is questionable. This study aimed to determine new optimal cutoffs of PTS.

DESIGN, PATIENT AND MEASUREMENTS

Patients (n = 529) with PTC who underwent total thyroidectomy were retrospectively reviewed. After risk factor analysis for structural recurrence, the optimal cutoffs of PTS were automatically calculated using restricted cubic spline analysis and X-tile software. Subgroups were classified based on the newly determined cutoff values. Both the recurrence-free survival (RFS) and the proportion of patients in each response-to-therapy category, using the dynamic risk stratification system (DRS), were compared between the subgroups.

RESULTS

PTS was confirmed as an independent risk factor for structural recurrence. The optimal cutoff values were calculated as 1.4 and 3.0 cm. The subgroups stratified using these newly determined cutoffs showed significantly different RFS and DRS based on the response to initial therapy, but the subgroups classified using the cutoffs of 2 and 4 cm did not.

CONCLUSIONS

The newly determined cutoff values of PTS may be useful in better stratifying patients with PTC undergoing thyroidectomy for target outcomes and can be considered as a new definition in staging and risk stratification systems.

Total thyroidectomy vs. lobectomy in differentiated thyroid cancer: is there a reasonable size cut-off for decision? A narrative review

Objective

To analyze all the most recent guidelines/consensus as well as papers regarding the relationship between size of tumor, type of surgery, and prognosis, and to try to produce a critical synthesis for real practice.

Background

Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is characterized by a wide range of biological behavior. The type of intervention can range from lobectomy (LT) to total thyroidectomy (TT), with tumor size being a point of discussion in choosing the treatment.

Methods

We carried out a search on PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library, looking at all the guidelines and consensus regarding DTC, as well as examining original articles, inserting as our research keys "total thyroidectomy vs. lobectomy in differentiated thyroid cancer" and "hemithyroidectomy in thyroid cancer". The guidelines and consensus published over the last 5 years were 6 in total: ATA Guidelines, Italian Consensus of Six Italian Societies, United Kingdom National Multidisciplinary Guidelines, ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines, a Practical Guidance of a Multidisciplinary Panel of Experts, and The Revised Clinical Practise Guidelines on the Management of Thyroid Tumours by the Japanese Association of Endocrine Surgeons. There were 13 papers cited in the guidelines, and we found another 5 original articles, all of which were retrospective studies.

Conclusions

The type of initial surgical intervention must of course consider tumor size, but must also take into account all the risk factors, which is paramount in deciding the type of treatment. LT can have some advantages, and can represent an option that can be offered to patients. However, even in the absence of any special risk factors, a review of the literature suggests to us that patients should be informed that LT for tumors of a size between 2 and 4 cm can be associated with an increased risk of LR as well as with a possible reduced OS.

Initial treatment of patients with thyroid cancer: Outcomes and factors associated with care at academic versus nonacademic cancer centers

BACKGROUND

Factors associated with receiving initial care for thyroid cancer (TC) at academic centers (ACs) versus nonacademic centers (NACs) and their impact on patient outcomes have not been reported.

METHODS

The National Cancer Database with TC cases from 2004 to 2013 was evaluated for association of type of center for initial care with socioeconomic factors and disease and treatment characteristics, as well as overall survival (OS; all-cause mortality).

RESULTS

The patients with TC (n = 200,824) included were predominantly women (74%), non-Hispanic Whites (85%), and from metro areas (84%). Sixty percent received initial care at a NAC. There were no significant differences between treatment groups by age or gender. Among those treated at an AC, a higher proportion belonged to racial/ethnic minorities (16.5%) versus at a NAC (11.6%). Hormone therapy was used more in an AC versus a NAC (60% vs 47%). Patients with all TC pathologies combined had a lower likelihood of death when they received initial care at an AC (hazard ratio [HR], 0.948; P = .0006). Among individual pathologic subtypes, a lower likelihood of death was noted when initial care was received at an AC for follicular (HR, 0.828, P = .0010) and Hurthle cell cancers (HR, 792; P = .0008), as well as stage II papillary thyroid cancer (HR, 0.828; P = .0026), but not for other histopathologic subtypes.

CONCLUSIONS

Initial care at an AC was associated with lower likelihood of death for patients with TC, especially for those with follicular or Hurthle cell subtypes. Optimal resource use with consideration of patients' socioeconomic and demographic factors is imperative to ensure the most appropriate management of patients with TC in various treatment settings.

Correlation between telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA expression and survival of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter mutations were recently found to be associated with poorer prognosis in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma. Correlation between telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA expression and survival of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma has not been determined.

METHODS

Clinical information, somatic mutations, and RNA sequencing of 492 papillary thyroid carcinoma patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Correlations between messenger RNA expression and clinicopathologic variables were evaluated. Recursive partitioning regression trees were used to find cutoffs predicting survival. Differentially expressed gene analysis was performed by Edge-R, and Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery 6.7 was used to pathway analysis.

RESULTS

Telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA expression was positively correlated with stages II and IV and high MACIS Prognostic Score for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. Using a telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA level of 2.854 as a cutoff, patients with higher telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA expression showed poorer overall survival (hazard ratio = 20.7). The higher telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA group showed upregulation of 2,255 genes, with enrichment of carcinogenic pathways.

CONCLUSION

Higher telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA expression was associated with poorer survival in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma and was a better predictor for death than telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter mutations. Measuring telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA expression in thyroid cancer tissue may allow early identification of papillary thyroid carcinoma patients with worse overall survival.

Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma and Late Onset of Lung Distant Metastasis. A Case Report

Background: Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), which includes the papillary and follicular variants, is a common neoplasm. DTC has a very high cure rate and is treated surgically, usually followed by ablation of the post-surgical remnant with radioiodine. Case Presentation: The case of a 68-year-old male patient who underwent a minimally invasive complete thyroidectomy on July 4, 2007 for capsulated follicular carcinoma with margins of excision exempted from neoplastic infiltration (AJCC 2002 pT2 PNX PMX) is presented. Discussion: As the patient showed the presence of a pulmonary metastasis after 11 years, the potential implications of DTC follow-up management are here summarized. Conclusions: Follow up must be continued throughout life.

The efficacy of radioactive iodine for the treatment of well-differentiated thyroid cancer with distant metastasis

Objective

Radioactive iodine (¹³¹I) has been used as a treatment for high-risk well-differentiated thyroid cancer after thyroidectomy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term follow-up results after using high accumulated doses of ¹³¹I (>600 mCi) for the treatment of well-differentiated thyroid cancer.

Patients and methods

In this study, we retrospectively evaluated prospectively enrolled patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer who were treated and followed up in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou and Keelung, Taiwan. All the patients underwent thyroidectomy between 1979 and 2016.

Results

For our study, 228 patients with papillary and follicular thyroid carcinoma with distant metastases were enrolled. Of the 228 patients, 71 (31.1%) received ¹³¹I therapy with an accumulated dose of at least 600 mCi. Forty-four died because of disease-specific mortality (DSM) after a mean follow-up of 10.6±6.3 years. Compared with the patients in the DSM group, which included 27 survival cases, patients who were younger, and those with a multifocal tumor, more extensive thyroidectomy, and papillary thyroid carcinoma showed better prognosis. The DSM group included a higher percentage of patients who developed a secondary primary cancer after receiving a diagnosis of thyroid cancer than the survival group (18.2 vs. 3.7%). However, the difference did not reach statistical significance (P=0.075).

Conclusion

¹³¹I provided an effective therapeutic modality for well-differentiated thyroid cancer patients with distant metastasis. After a mean of follow-up 10 years, more than 60% of cases resulted in DSM when high accumulated ¹³¹I doses were administered.

Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: How Do Current Practice Guidelines Affect Management?

BACKGROUND

International best-practice guidelines recommend completion thyroidectomy and radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA) for patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) > 4 cm or with specific risk factors. Patients with DTC < 1 cm without risk factors are recommended for lobectomy alone. Indications for aggressive surgery and RRA are less clearly defined for tumours measuring 1-4 cm. A personalised approach to decision-making is recommended.

OBJECTIVES

This study assesses therapeutic approaches to DTC as compared to the current British Thyroid Association (BTA) clinical practice guidelines. We ascertained the effect of equivocal guidance in the 1-4 cm tumour cohort on contemporary practice patterns.

METHODS

Data were obtained from a prospectively maintained thyroid cancer database of patients treated for DTC in a tertiary referral centre at the University Hospital Galway. Consecutive patients attending a dedicated thyroid cancer clinic between August 2014 and August 2017 were included. Clinicopathological characteristics and management strategies were assessed.

RESULTS

Ninety-four percent (n = 168/178) of patients were surgically managed in adherence with guidelines. A minority (n = 10) received surgery not aligned with guidelines. Ninety-seven percent (n = 172/178) of RRA treatment decisions were in accordance with guidelines. The BTA guidelines recommended a personalised decision-making approach for 18.0% (n = 32) and 44.9% (n = 80) of surgery and RRA treatment decisions, respectively. The more aggressive, treatment-driven approach was typically favoured by the multidisciplinary team, with 97% (n = 31/32) undergoing completion thyroidectomy and 100% (n = 80) proceeding to RRA.

CONCLUSIONS

Management of DTC at our institution closely adheres to contemporary clinical practice guidelines. The finding of more aggressive management in those requiring a personalised decision-making approach highlights the requirement for improved risk stratification in this cohort to ratio-nalise management strategies.

Eighth edition of tumor-node-metastasis staging system improve survival predictability for papillary, but not follicular thyroid carcinoma: A multicenter cohort study

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to evaluate the proposed changes in the eighth edition of the tumor-node-metastasis staging system (TNM-8) compared with the seventh edition (TNM-7) in terms of pathologic subtypes, using a large multicenter thyroid cancer cohort.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed 7717 patients with papillary (PTC) and 273 with follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) who underwent thyroid surgery between 1996 and 2005. We assessed the proportion of variation explained (PVE) to compare the predictive accuracy of disease-specific survival (DSS).

RESULTS

During a median 11.3 years of follow-up, 169 (2%) disease-specific deaths were recorded. In patients with PTC, the 10-year DSS rates of stages I, II, III, and IV disease in TNM-8 were 99.6%, 95.7%, 81.5%, and 54.8%, respectively; the corresponding rates in TNM-7 were 99.6%, 98.4%, 98.4%, and 90.1%, respectively. In patients with FTC, the 10-year DSS rates of stages I, II, III, and IV disease in TNM-8 were 97.2%, 69.8%, 50.0%, and 45.5%, respectively; the corresponding rates in TNM-7 were 98.3%, 90.0%, 92.3%, and 42.1%, respectively. Comparing TNM-7 and TNM-8, the PVE values increased from 3.4% to 4.7% in the PTC group, whereas they decreased from 17.5% to 14.5% in the FTC group.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that the changes in TNM-8 have improved the clinical usefulness of the TNM staging system in terms of predicting DSS in patients with PTC but not FTC. Further studies to establish a more predictable TNM staging system that focuses on patients with FTC are necessary.