Follicular lesion of undetermined significance in thyroid FNA revisited

Abstract

Controversy exists regarding the validity of follicular lesion of undetermined significance (FLUS), an indeterminate diagnostic category of The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (BSRTC). According to BSRTC, FLUS carries a 5-15% risk of cancer. This study was designed to determine if cytomorphology could stratify FLUS into subgroups with different risks of malignancy. Reports of 127 consecutive FNAs reported as FLUS with subsequent tissue diagnoses were evaluated for the presence of various cytologic features and the results were correlated with histological diagnoses. FLUS cases with focal nuclear atypia (nuclear overlap/crowding, nuclear grooves/membrane irregularities, nuclear enlargement, and/or nuclear pseudoinclusions) were more frequently malignant on excision whereas those with architectural atypia (microfollicles) were more often benign on excision (P < 0.05). The presence of any one or more of these nuclear features increased the risk of carcinoma in subsequent thyroid resection. Papillary carcinomas predominated in excised FLUS cases with focal nuclear atypia whereas most FLUS with architectural atypia were adenomas or hyperplastic nodules on histological evaluation. BSRTC recommends that thyroid aspirates containing follicular cell nuclear and/or architectural atypia insufficient for a diagnosis of suspicious for follicular neoplasm, suspicious for malignancy or malignant be classified as FLUS. Our findings indicate that FLUS cases with focal nuclear atypia carry a risk for malignancy that is substantially higher than that assigned to FLUS and are best classified as suspicious. FLUS cases lacking these atypical nuclear features have a risk for malignancy that approximates the risk BSRTC has assigned to FLUS.