RESUMO
Objective:To investigate clinicobiological characteristics and treatment principles of diffuse calcified variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma.Methods:Twenty one patients with diffuse calcified thyroid glands admitted to the Department of Head and Neck Surgery of Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital from Jan 2011 to Dec 2015 were enrolled in the study group. One humdred and five patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) confirmed by postoperative pathology (non-diffuse calcified thyroid nodules) during the corresponding period were included into the control group. The clinicobiological characteristics of different cases were analyzed by collecting the following information: gender, age, ultrasonic features, thyroid function, pathological type, lymph node metastasis, BRAF V600E mutation and follow-up.Results:No significant difference was found between the study group and the control group in gender, age or the number of patients complicated with Hashimoto′s thyroiditis; while there were significant differences in bilateral involvement of central lymph node metastasis, lateral neck lymph node metastasis and positive rate of BRAF V600E mutant protein expression in postoperative specimens ( P<0.01). As found by postoperative follow-up, there was no significant difference in the rate of neck lymph node recurrence between the two groups. Conclusions:Diffuse calcified variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma is a new subtype of PTC with unique clinicobiological characteristics, and more active clinical treatment programme should be adopted for the diffuse calcified thyroid carcinoma.