Endocrine Abstracts

Medical documentation of 976 patients treated and followed-up over the years 2001–2006 at our 131- radioiodine treatment centre was analysed with respect to their thyroid cancer staging. The mean age at their time of diagnosis was 59±15.1 years. From histopathology, papillary, follicular or poorly differentiated cancer was diagnosed in 87.6, 11.7, and 0.7% of these patients, respectively. The mean ages of patients with papillary, follicular or poorly differentiated cancer were 58.4±15.0, 62.9±15.7 and 70.6±14.6 years, respectively, the age differences between these patient groups being statistically significant (P=0.0014). On their admission, patients were TNM- staged. Patients with microcarcinoma pT1a formed the largest group – 38.9%, followed by T1b- 32.3%, T2− 10.0%, T3−12.3%, T4−3.0%, and Tx – 3.5%. In the last case the tumour diameter was not established by the surgeon or pathologist. Most patients were staged at N0 – 88.9%, followed by N1a− 9.7%, and N1a+b – 1.4%. At the time of diagnosis, distant metastases to lungs or bones was staged as M1in only 0.6% of patients. On chi-square analysis of percentage distribution of tumour size (T) in papillary cancer patients, pT1a was most frequent (42.8%), while T₂ dominated in the follicular cancer group (32.3%). This difference was statistically significant (P=0.0000). No differences were found with respect to N or M classes. In the follow-up of this patient group, 77 patients were re-operated due to lymph node or lung metastases, and 23 patients were operated three times. Multiple I-131 treatment (2–6 times) was applied in this last group. Three patients died due to thyroid cancer progression.

Conclusion: On their diagnosis, patients with papillary cancer and follicular cancer significantly differed with respect to age and stage of disease.