Abstract
Objective
To explore the clinicopathological features and relative prognostic risks of
the three major variants of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).
Methods
We retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological characteristics and
prognoses of patients with the three major PTC variants, conventional
papillary thyroid carcinoma (CPTC), follicular-variant papillary carcinoma
(FVPTC), and tall-cell papillary thyroid carcinoma (TCPTC), based on data
from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database from 2005 to
2009.
Results
A total of 29,555 patients were enrolled. In terms of their demographic and
clinicopathological characteristics, TCPTC had the highest prevalence of
older patients, men, patients with locally advanced stage (T stage and N
stage), and mortality, while FVPTC had the lowest prevalence in relation to
these factors. The three variants differed significantly in terms of 5-year
overall survival and 5-year disease-specific survival. Cox regression
analysis identified male sex, age ≥45 years, and higher American Joint
Committee on Cancer and TNM stage as independent factors predicting a poor
prognosis in relation to both overall and disease-specific survival.
Conclusions
CPTC, FVPTC, and TCPTC have different clinicopathological characteristics and
prognoses, indicating the need for different treatment strategies for these
three variants of PTC.
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