CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MULTICENTRIC PAPILLARY THYROID CARCINOMA

KAZIM ÇAĞLAR ÖZÇELIK¹ , HALUK ULUCANLAR² , SEVIM TURANLI² , İSMAIL ZIHNI¹ , OKTAY KARAKÖSE¹ , HÜSEYIN PÜLAT¹ , ALPASLAN FEDAI ÇALTA³ , HÜSEYIN EKEN⁴

¹ Suleyman Demirel University Medical Faculty, Department of Surgical Oncology, Isparta - ² Ankara Oncology Education and Research Hospital, Department of General Surgery, Ankara - ³ Bandırma State Hospital, Department of General Surgery, Balikesir - ⁴ Mengücek Gazi Education and Research Hospital, Department of General Surgery, Erzincan, Turkey

Aim: This study is conducted to identfy clinical significance of multicentricity and its effects on thyroid papillary carcinoma.

Materials and methods: Hospital records of 250 patients who were operated and diagnosed as thyroid papillary carcinoma according to pathology report between 2000-2007 in Ankara Oncology Hospital were analyzed retrospectively.

Results: Among the 250 paitents who were diagnosed with thyroid papillary carcinoma and followed 102.5 mounts in average, multicentricity was identified in the 43.2% of the patients. Multicentricity was detected in 57.1% (32 patients) of the 56 patients who had follicular variant of thyroid papillary carcinoma which was detected in their pathology report. In comparison with other subgroups, multicentricity was seen in a higher statistical rate in follicular variant. However, a statistically significant relation between them could not be founded (p:0.06). Among the 13 multicentric patients, vascular invasion was seen in 10 patients (76.9%) and there was a statistical correlation (p<0.05). Although multicentricity was seen in 46.8% (36 patients) of the 78 patients with lymph node metastasis at the time of diagnosis, there was not a statistical correlation. 34 patients had recurrence and multicentricity was seen in 19 of them (55.9%) with no statistical relation. Moreover, no correlation of multicentricty with general survival and disease-free survival was found.

Discussion: Multicentricity characterized with high recurrence rate and lymph node metastasis should be accepted as a bad prognostic factor and in this situation aggressive treatment protocol should be used.