ABSTRACT
Objectives: Aim was to evaluate clinicopathological and treatment outcomes of diffuse sclerosing variant papillary thyroid carcinoma [DSV-PTC]. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Two major tertiary care hospitals of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Material: Medical records of 1192 patients with confirmed papillary thyroid cancers [PTC], who were treated or followed up during the period of July 2000 and December 2012 were reviewed. Main outcome measure: To evaluate the clinicopathologic features and treatment outcomes of patients with DSV- PTC and perform comparative analysis of DSV-PTC with classic-variant PTC [CV-PTC]
Results: A total of 44 cases [3.7%] of DSV-PTC were identified. DSV-PTC patients were younger than their CV-PTC [p = 0.001]. The mean tumor size was larger in DSV-PTC as compared to CV-PTC [p < 0.0001]. Advanced pathologic tumor [pT] stage and positive lymph nodes were more often present in DSV-PTC than in CV-PTC [p < 0.0001 and p < 0.0001 respectively]. Median follow-up was 8.05 years [range: 1.62-11.4]. Ten-year disease-specific survival [DSS] rates were lower in DSV-PTC [74.4%] than in CV-PTC [89.4%]; p = 0.001
Conclusion: DSV-PTC is more aggressive variant as compared to CV-PTC, and is associated with inferior DSS rates. An aggressive surgical approach followed by radioiodine therapy is warranted for these patients