Clinical analysis of 77 cases of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma

Abstract

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). Methods One hundred and twenty nine patients preoperatively diagnosed as papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC) or suspicious PTC by fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) underwent thyroidectomy, and 127 cases were confirmed as PTC histopathologically, among whom 77 cases were microcarcinoma (60.6%). The clinical data of 77 PTMC cases were retrospectively analyzed with SPSS (20.0) statistical software. Results In 77 PTMC cases, BRAF gene detection was performed in 69 cases, 51 cases showed positive BRAF (73.9%) and 18 cases were negative. Among patients with positive BRAF, 17 cases had cervical lymph node metastasis (33.3%); and in those with negative BRAF, 5 cases had metastasis (5/18, χ2=0.189, P>0.05). In 31 patients with multiple lesions, 14 had cervical lymph node metastasis (45.2%); while in 46 patients with single lesion, 9 had metastasis (19.6%) (χ2=5.792, P<0.05). Conclusion Although PTMC growth is slow and occult, early lymph node metastasis is not rare, particularly for patients with multiple lesions. Key words: Thyroid neoplasma; Carcinoma, papillary; Biopsy, fine-needle; BRAF gene