Prevalence of Central Compartment Lymph Node Metastases in Papillary Thyroid Micro-Carcinoma: A Retrospective Evaluation of Predictive Preoperative Features.

Papillary thyroid micro-carcinomas are considered relatively indolent carcinomas, often occult and incidental, with good prognosis and favorable outcomes. Despite these findings, central lymph node metastases are common, and are related to a poor prognosis for the patient. We performed a retrospective analysis on patients treated with surgery for stage pT1a papillary thyroid micro-carcinomas. One hundred ninety-five patients were included in the analyses. The presence of central lymph node metastases was identified and studied. A multivariate analysis employing binary logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals of possible central lymph node metastases risk factors. In the performed multivariate analysis, male gender, younger age, and histopathological characteristics, such as a tumor sub-capsular localization, were significantly associated with central lymph node metastases in pT1a patients. Central compartment lymph node metastases are present in a non-negligible number of cases in patients with papillary thyroid micro-carcinoma undergoing surgical resection. Studying these factors could be an effective tool for predicting patients' central lymph node metastases in papillary thyroid micro-carcinomas, defining a tailored surgical treatment in the future.

Ultrasound dye-assisted parathyroidectomy (USDAP): Experience of a tertiary center.

BACKGROUND: Primary hyperparathyroidism is primarily caused by parathyroid adenoma, followed by hyperplasia and parathyroid carcinoma. In the era of minimally invasive, targeted parathyroidectomy, the main challenge remains that of distinguishing intraoperatively pathological parathyroid from normal glands and peri-thyroid fat tissue. The aim of this study is to evaluate the surgical outcomes of a novel minimally invasive technique called ultrasound-guided dye-assisted parathyroidectomy (USDAP). METHODS: We perform a retrospective analysis of patients affected by parathyroid adenoma, treated with USDAP at our institution between 2014 and 2019. Data were collected on patient age and sex, tumor location and size, preoperative investigations, histopathology, perioperative complications and surgical outcomes. RESULTS: Between January 2014 and June 2019, 43 patients underwent parathyroidectomy in our Institute. Each case was discussed by the Institutional Multidisciplinary Board. All patients undergoing thyroidectomy together with USDAP or patients undergoing USDAP under endoscopic control were excluded from the present study. The final cohort, the largest to our knowledge, consisted of 29 patients. All patients were successfully treated with USDAP and remained disease-free during follow up. In all cases, pathological parathyroid was correctly identified and removed. There was no postoperative allergic reaction, nor were there neurotoxicity complications. USDAP permitted a shortening of operative and hospitalization time. CONCLUSIONS: USDAP is an effective and safe procedure both as first line treatment and as a re-operative procedure after previous surgical failures in selected cases.

Vasostatin-1: A novel circulating biomarker for ileal and pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms.

BACKGROUND: Chromogranin A (CgA) is a plasma biomarker widely used in the follow-up of patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs). However, its accuracy as a tumor biomarker is relatively low because plasma CgA can increase also in patients with other diseases or in subjects treated with proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), a class of widely-used drugs. METHODS: In the attempt to identify a more reliable biomarker for NENs, we investigated, by ELISA, the circulating levels of full-length CgA (CgA1-439) and of various CgA-derived fragments in 17 patients with ileal or pancreatic NENs, 10 healthy controls, and 21 healthy volunteers before and after treatment with PPIs. RESULTS: Patients with ileal or pancreatic NENs showed increased plasma levels of total-CgA and CgA1-76 fragment (vasostatin-1, VS-1) compared to controls [median (25th-75th-percentiles); total-CgA: 1.85 nM (1.01-4.28) vs 0.75 nM (0.52-0.89), p = 0.004; VS-1: 2.76 nM (1.09-7.10) vs 0.29 nM (0.26-0.32), p<0.001, respectively], but not of CgA1-439 or CgA1-373 fragment. VS-1 positively correlated with total-CgA (r = 0.65, p<0.001). The Receiver Operating Characteristic area under the curve was 0.9935 for VS-1 and 0.8824 for total-CgA (p = 0.067). Treatment of patients with somatostatin analogues decreased both total-CgA and VS-1. In contrast, administration of PPIs increased the plasma levels of total-CgA, but not of VS-1. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that plasma VS-1 is a novel biomarker for ileal and pancreatic NENs. Considering that VS-1 is a well-defined fragment not induced by proton-pump inhibitors, this polypeptide might represent a biomarker for NENs diagnosis and follow-up more accurate and easier to standardize than CgA.