Characteristics of 185 thyroid micropapillary carcinoma patients undergoing 131I treatment / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare the clinical features of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) and non-microcarcinoma papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods Clinical data of 522 patients (156 males, 366 females, age:16-77 years) with PTC treated with 131 I from January 2014 to September 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were divided into PTMC group (46 males, 139 females, age:(38.5± 6. 5) years;tumor diameter≤1.0 cm) and non-microcarcinoma PTC group (110 males, 227 females, age:(40.5±4.5) years; tumor diameter>1.0 cm). General information and TNM status of patients were com-pared. The t' test andχ2 test were used to analyze the data. Results Patients was relatively young in PTMC group ( t'=2.20, P<0.05) , but no difference was observed in gender between 2 groups (χ2=3.45, P>0. 05;mostly females) . The incidence of extraglandular invasion in PTMC group was significantly lower than that in PTC group (33.51％(62/185) vs 56.08％(189/337);χ2=24.37, P<0.01), mainly in peripheral muscle/fibrous adipose tissue (χ2=11.01, P<0.01) and tracheal infiltration (χ2=5.35, P<0.05). Nodular goiter and Hashimoto's thyroiditis were commonly shown in both groups, and the tumor distribution was bilobar and/or multi-foci. The rate of regional lymph node metastasis was higher in non-microcarcinoma PTC group (88.43％ (298/337) vs 82.16％ (152/185);χ2=3.94, P<0.05), and central lymph node metastasis oc-curred more in PTMC group (χ2=5.75, P<0.05). Besides, non-microcarcinoma PTC group was likely to involve more lymph node areas (χ2=5.69, P<0.05) and distant metastasis (9.50％ (32/337) vs 2.16％(4/185);χ2=10.00, P<0.01). There were no differences of extraglandular infiltration, tumor distribution or lymph node metastasis between moderate-and high-risk PTMC and non-microcarcinoma PTC groups (χ2 values:0.01-3.33, all P>0.05) . Conclusions Clinical characteristics of PTC can be influenced by tumor diameter. The features of primary tumor and lymph node metastasis between patients with moderate- and high-risk PTMC and non-microcarcinoma PTC patients are similar, which suggests that 131 I therapy is neces-sary to patients with moderate-and high-risk PTMC.