J Endocr Surg.  2019 Dec;19(4):95-105. 10.16956/jes.2019.19.4.95.

Which Clinicopathological Factors Are Related to Tumor Size in Papillary Thyroid Cancer?

• Yoon S
• Lee J
• Soh E

• KMID: 2466235
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.16956/jes.2019.19.4.95

Abstract

PURPOSE
Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common endocrine cancer worldwide. Tumor size on observation, together with lymph node metastasis, serves as a determinant of surgery. However, not all patients with PTC experience an increase in the size of tumor. We investigated various clinicopathological factors associated with the size of tumor to discern the group that can be observed without the need for early surgery.
METHODS
The records of 1,401 patients diagnosed with PTC (excluding the follicular variant) between 2015 and 2017, were reviewed. Clinicopathological features suspected to have a link to tumor growth were included, such as diabetes mellitus (DM), use of metformin, a surgical history of breast, ovary, uterine, or familial non-medullary thyroid cancer, B-type Raf kinase (BRAF) V600E mutation, and lymphovascular invasion (LVI).
RESULTS
Size of tumor was found to be related to sex, age, hypertension, ovary-uterine surgery, LVI and psammoma bodies. However, after adjusting for the effects of other factors on tumor size, both age and LVI were found to be significantly related to tumor size, with age also being significantly related to LVI.
CONCLUSION
Age and LVI are significant factors in the enlargement of tumors, unlike several other features, including DM, breast cancer history, familial cancer history, Graves's disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and BRAF mutation.

Keyword

Papillary thyroid cancer; Lymph nodes; Lymphatic metastasis

MeSH Terms

Breast
Breast Neoplasms
Diabetes Mellitus
Endocrine Gland Neoplasms
Female
Hashimoto Disease
Humans
Hypertension
Lymph Nodes
Lymphatic Metastasis
Metformin
Neoplasm Metastasis
Ovary
Phosphotransferases
Thyroid Gland*
Thyroid Neoplasms*
Thyroiditis
Metformin
Phosphotransferases

Figure

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  Fig. 1 The distribution of mean tumor size according to age.

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  Fig. 2 The distribution of LVI according to age. LVI = lymphovascular invasion.

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  Fig. 3 The distribution of LVI according to tumor size. LVI = lymphovascular invasion.

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