Metastasis and Deaths with Thyroid Cancer

Woo, Sang Uk; Kim, Sang Wook; Kim, Jeong Han; Nam, Seok Jin; Yang, Jung Hyun

Abstract

PURPOSE
Most patients with thyroid cancer have a good prognosis. However, it has been difficult to study a large number of patients succumbing to thyroid carcinoma due to the low mortality rate and the long follow-up period associated with differentiated thyroid cancer. Therefore, we evaluated characteristics of metastasis and deaths, sites of metastasis, difference of survival from pathologic classification and treatments and the cause of deaths.
METHODS
From June 1995 to December 2003, fifty-four patients who died due to distant metastasis and recurrence of thyroid cancer in Samsung Seoul Medical Center were analyzed.
RESULTS
We analyzed cause of death in 55 fatal cases. Single fatal conditions could not be specified in 13 patients. In the remaining 42 patients, respiratory failure (57.1%) was the most common specific fatal condition, followed by airway obstruction (26.2%), renal failure (7.1%) and sepsis (7.1%). According to histologic subtype, overall survival and relapse survival were statistically significant (P<0.005). However, No significant difference in disease free survival was observed (P=0.09).
CONCLUSION
Early diagnosis and suitable treatment were also important factors for thyroid cancer. There was shorter relapse survival length in papillary cancers than that of follicular cancers. Anaplastic cancers had a poorer survival. We couldn't find difference of relapse survival result from the treatments of metastatic thyroid cancer.