Open AccessTumor Margin Histology Predicts Tumor Aggressiveness in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Study of 514 Consecutive Patients
Author(s) -
Kuk Jin Kim,
Soon Won Hong,
Yong Sang Lee,
Bup Woo Kim,
Seung−Chul Lee,
Hang Seok Chang,
Cheong Soo Park
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of korean medical science/journal of korean medical science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1598-6357
pISSN - 1011-8934
DOI - 10.3346/jkms.2011.26.3.346
Subject(s) - medicine , histology , thyroid carcinoma , primary tumor , lymph node , pathology , carcinoma , thyroid , surgical margin , stage (stratigraphy) , lymph node metastasis , metastasis , oncology , cancer , biology , paleontology
Histologic patterns at tumor margins may be related to prognosis in several malignancies. We investigated tumor aggressiveness with respect to tumor margin histology in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Five hundred fourteen consecutive patients who underwent surgery for primary PTC between January and July 2009 were assigned to two groups, one with an infiltrative pattern (I-type, n = 347) at tumor margins and one with an expanding pattern (E-type, n = 167). Tumor aggressiveness was assessed by analyzing relationships between these patterns and known prognostic factors. The analysis showed that unfavorable prognostic factors such as tumor multiplicity (P = 0.002), extrathyroidal extension (P < 0.001), lateral neck lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001) and advanced TNM stage (P = 0.001) were significantly more prevalent in patients with I-type PTC than in those with the E-type. Central neck node metastases were more prevalent without statistical significance in the I-type patients (P = 0.376). Tumor margin histology was not related to gender or tumor size. These results suggest that histologic patterns at tumor margins predict aggressiveness in PTC.