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INTRODUCTION: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) in adolescents rare but with a favorable outcome, despite higher rates of cervical lymph node and pulmonary metastasis compared to adults. The aim of this study was to critically evaluate treatment of adolescents with DTC at a single center. METHODS: Patients receiving postoperative radioiodine treatment (RAIT) for DTC between 2005 and 2020 at our institution were screened to identify adolescents according to the World Health Organization definition (10-19 years of age). Demographics, clinico-pathological characteristics, treatment and outcome were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 1,897 DTC patients, 23 (1.3%) were adolescents with a median (range) age of 16 (10-18) years. The female to male ratio was 3.6: 1. Sixty percent had classic papillary thyroid cancer, with follicular variant in 40%, which was higher than previously reported (15-25%) for this age group. pT-status was pT1 in 9 (39.2%), pT2 in 8 (34.8%), pT3 in 3 (13%) and pT4 in 3 (13%) patients. In 19 (82.6%) patients, central lymphadenectomy was performed and metastasis was seen in 57%. All patients received RAIT with initial activities of 1.2 (n=1, 4.3%), 2 (n=12, 52.2%) or 3.7 GBq (n=10, 43.5%). Eighteen (78.2%) patients were free of biochemical and radiologic disease at a median follow-up of 60.7 months. Second-line surgery for lymph node relapse was necessary in 3 (13%) cases. There was one disease-associated death. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Despite high rates of metastasis, most patients were cured, and second-line surgery was rarely required. Further prospective studies are needed to determine whether less aggressive surgical management or omitting adjuvant RAIT are feasible in patients with limited stages at diagnosis.

Objective: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) in adolescents rare but with a favorable outcome, despite higher rates of cervical lymph node and pulmonary metastasis compared to adults. The aim of this study was to critically evaluate treatment of adolescents with DTC at a single center. Methods: Patients receiving postoperative radioiodine treatment (RAIT) for DTC between 2005 and 2020 at our institution were screened to identify adolescents according to the World Health Organization definition (10-19 years of age). Demographics, clinico-pathological characteristics, treatment and outcome were analyzed. Results: Among 1,897 DTC patients, 23 (1.3%) were adolescents with a median (range) age of 16 (10-18) years. The female to male ratio was 3.6:1. Sixty percent had classic papillary thyroid cancer, with follicular variant in 40%, which was higher than previously reported (15-25%) for this age group. pT-status was pT1 in 9 (39.2%), pT2 in 8 (34.8%), pT3 in 3 (13%) and pT4 in 3 (13%) patients. In 19 (82.6%) patients, central lymphadenectomy was performed and metastasis was seen in 57%. All patients received RAIT with initial activities of 1.2 (n=1, 4.3%), 2 (n=12, 52.2%) or 3.7 GBq (n=10, 43.5%). Eighteen (78.2%) patients were free of biochemical and radiologic disease at a median follow-up of 60.7 months. Second-line surgery for lymph node relapse was necessary in 3 (13%) cases. There was one disease-associated death. Conclusion: Despite high rates of metastasis, most patients were cured, and second-line surgery was rarely required. Further prospective studies are needed to determine whether less aggressive surgical management or omitting adjuvant RAIT are feasible in patients with limited stages at diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hürthle cell carcinoma (HCC) of the thyroid is rare. There are contrasting data on its clinical behavior. The aim of this study was to describe clinic-pathological features and outcomes of HCC patients at our institution, in order to adapt our surgical management. Methods: We retrospectively studied 51 cases of HCC treated at the interdisciplinary endocrine center of the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany between 2005 and 2020. Results: Patients median age was 63 years (range 29-78) with 64.7% of cases being female. Primary treatment included surgery and postoperative radioiodine therapy with 3.7 GBq in all patients. Surgery consisted of total thyroidectomy in all cases and additional central lymphadenectomy in 90.2% of cases. The median number of harvested lymph nodes was 11 (range 2-31). Lymph node involvement was found in two (4.3%) pT4a tumors. In all other cases (95.7%), central lymphadenectomy was prophylactic and lymph nodes were free of metastasis in final histopathology. Twelve (23.5%) patients with incomplete biochemical response to primary treatment were diagnosed with structural relapse during the course of disease, for which seven (58.4%) underwent resection of isolated cervical metastasis. Histopathology revealed soft tissue implants in all cases and cervical surgery led to biochemical and radiologic cure in only two (28.5%) cases. Five (41.6%) patients developed metastatic disease, followed by systemic therapy in two patients. Vascular invasion of the primary tumor was significantly associated with relapse (p<0.01). Conclusions: Recurrence of HCC was common in this study. Given the low rate of lymph node metastases both in this study and in recent literature and the nature of relapse (soft tissue instead of nodal metastasis), the benefit of routine prophylactic central lymph node dissection for HCC remains unclear, especially in the absence of vascular invasion from the primary tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundHürthle cell carcinoma (HCC) of the thyroid is rare. There are contrasting data on its clinical behavior. The aim of this study was to describe clinic-pathological features and outcomes of HCC patients at our institution, in order to adapt our surgical management.MethodsWe retrospectively studied 51 cases of HCC treated at the interdisciplinary endocrine center of the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany between 2005 and 2020.ResultsPatients median age was 63 years (range 29-78) with 64.7% of cases being female. Primary treatment included surgery and postoperative radioiodine therapy with 3.7 GBq in all patients. Surgery consisted of total thyroidectomy in all cases and additional central lymphadenectomy in 90.2% of cases. The median number of harvested lymph nodes was 11 (range 2-31). Lymph node involvement was found in two (4.3%) pT4a tumors. In all other cases (95.7%), central lymphadenectomy was prophylactic and lymph nodes were free of metastasis in final histopathology. Twelve (23.5%) patients with incomplete biochemical response to primary treatment were diagnosed with structural relapse during the course of disease, for which seven (58.4%) underwent resection of isolated cervical metastasis. Histopathology revealed soft tissue implants in all cases and cervical surgery led to biochemical and radiologic cure in only two (28.5%) cases. Five (41.6%) patients developed metastatic disease, followed by systemic therapy in two patients. Vascular invasion of the primary tumor was significantly associated with relapse (p

An elective or a prophylactic lymph node dissection is the removal of the lymph nodes that are normal on physical examination and on radiographic imaging. This type of dissection is not based on the visible disease in the targeted nodal basins, but on the potential of a radiographically occult tumour which can exist. The pathologic results of an elective lymph node dissection may help in predicting the risk of a future recurrence and, in some solid tumours, guide the delivery of the adjuvant therapy and as in this case, may contribute to a pathological diagnosis. The decision to proceed with an elective node dissection is based on the assessment of the risks and benefits of the procedure. The morbidity of the regional lymph node dissection must be balanced against the potential benefit of the procedure. A thyroid papillary microcarcinoma is defined according to the WHO criteria and Shaha as a thyroid tumour which is smaller than 1–1.5cm. Different terms are currently used to define this thyroid cancer such as small, tiny, minute, minimal or occult papillary carcinomas of the thyroid, impalpable thyroid carcinoma and incidental thyroid papillary cancer. A common clinical scenario is the incidental diagnosis of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) on the histology of the resected thyroid, following the surgery which was done for a presumably benign thyroid disease. PTMC was diagnosed in 7.1% of the patients with a presumably benign thyroid disease. It may be possible that this is an underestimation of the true incidence, because we did not use the serial sectioning technique and maybe because the PTMC which was present was so small that it was grossly not identified and sectioned. Herein, a case which was clinically suspicious and was radiologically and cytologically diagnosed as a case of retrosternal multinodular goitre underwent a near total thyroidectomy and a paratracheal lymphnode dissection. The node was found to have micrometastasis of the follicular variant of a papillary carcinoma and the thyroid, on a retrospective step sectioning, revealed an incidental PTMC. This case has been presented, to highlight the possibility of an incidental PTMC in the thyroid cases which were resected for benign disease and the importance of elective lymphnode dissection in contributing to the diagnosis of PTMC.

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Effectiveness of prophylactic extensive lymph node dissection (PELD) plus postoperative long term combination chemotherapy (PLCC) for patients with curatively resected gastric carcinoma was assessed in terms of the degree of serosal invasion and lymph node metastasis. Either the Group 1 and Group 2 lymphnodes were eradicated by PELD. PLCC included intermittent intravenous administration of mitomycin C (0.4 mg/kg intraoperatively followed by 0.2 mg/kg every 3 months) and oral administration of Tegafur (600-800 mg/day) and PSK (3.0 g/day), an immunostimulator, for as long a period as possible. PELD alone resulted in a cure when the malignancy was confined to the mucosal and muscular layers of the stomach as well as to the Group 1 lymph nodes. In cases when the carcinoma involved the serosa and/or the Group 2 lymph nodes, the 5 year survival rate was about 55 per cent the PELD and PLCC groups, such being significantly higher than about 27 per cent in the PELD alone group. Therefore, PELD plus PLCC is highly effective for advanced gastric carcinoma, under a condition of curative resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An elective or a prophylactic lymph node dissection is the removal of the lymph nodes that are normal on physical examination and on radiographic imaging. This type of dissection is not based on the visible disease in the targeted nodal basins, but on the potential of a radiographically occult tumour which can exist. The pathologic results of an elective lymph node dissection may help in predicting the risk of a future recurrence and, in some solid tumours, guide the delivery of the adjuvant therapy and as in this case, may contribute to a pathological diagnosis. The decision to proceed with an elective node dissection is based on the assessment of the risks and benefits of the procedure. The morbidity of the regional lymph node dissection must be balanced against the potential benefit of the procedure. A thyroid papillary microcarcinoma is defined according to the WHO criteria and Shaha as a thyroid tumour which is smaller than 1-1.5cm. Different terms are currently used to define this thyroid cancer such as small, tiny, minute, minimal or occult papillary carcinomas of the thyroid, impalpable thyroid carcinoma and incidental thyroid papillary cancer. A common clinical scenario is the incidental diagnosis of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) on the histology of the resected thyroid, following the surgery which was done for a presumably benign thyroid disease. PTMC was diagnosed in 7.1% of the patients with a presumably benign thyroid disease. It may be possible that this is an underestimation of the true incidence, because we did not use the serial sectioning technique and maybe because the PTMC which was present was so small that it was grossly not identified and sectioned. Herein, a case which was clinically suspicious and was radiologically and cytologically diagnosed as a case of retrosternal multinodular goitre underwent a near total thyroidectomy and a paratracheal lymphnode dissection. The node was found to have micrometastasis of the follicular variant of a papillary carcinoma and the thyroid, on a retrospective step sectioning, revealed an incidental PTMC. This case has been presented, to highlight the possibility of an incidental PTMC in the thyroid cases which were resected for benign disease and the importance of elective lymphnode dissection in contributing to the diagnosis of PTMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]