Treatment and prognosis of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the treatment and prognosis of patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma. Methods The clinical and following-up data of 124 patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma treated at the Department of Head and Neck Surgery of Cancer Centre, SUN Yat-sen University from Jan 1990 to Dec 1999 were analyzed retrospectively for mortality and survival rate ( KaplanMeier). A multivariate analysis was performed in these patients by Cox proportional hazard model. Results The overall 10-year and 15-year survival rate of all 124 patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma were 94.9% and 92.5% respectively. The univariate analysis showed the prognostic factors significantly influencing the survival of patients included age (being worse for those of 35 years and older) at presentation, and the status of distant metastasis ( all P ＜ 0. 05 ) , while gender, incidentally found at surgery, the size of primary tumor, the status of neck lymph node metastasis, recurrence after a primary resection, and the extent of surgical resection did not significantly effect the prognosis. Multivariate analysis showed the age more than 35 years at presentation was an independent risk factor indicating worse prognosis (P = 0. 045 ). Conclusioas The prognosis of patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma is satisfactory, but that is poor for those patients 35 years old and up at presentation and with distant metastasis. Key words: Thyroid neoplasms; Carcinoma,papillary; Therapy; Prognosis