Clinical Analysis of The Thyroid Papillary Cancer

Kim, Eun Joong; Jung, Kwang Yoon; Kwon, Soon Young; Baek, Seung Kuk; Woo, Jeong Su; Choi, Jee Hoon; Kim, Shin Gon

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid is the most common malignant neoplasm in the thyroid gland. We performed this study for the purpose of getting further understanding and more supporting ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid papillary cancer. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: One hundred seventy eight cases of papillary carcinoma of thyroid gland who had been diagnosed and had received treatment at the department of otolaryngology-Head and neck surgery at the Korea university hospital from 1992 to 2001 were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: The mean age of cases was 43.6 years in females and 47.9 years in males. The most common symptom was anterior neck mass. Symptoms were usually presented within three months. The size of thyroid mass was not related to the duration of illness. The most frequently performed operative procedure was total thyroidectomy (76.4%). The post operative complications were temporary vocal cord palsy (4.5%), iatrogenic vocal cord palsy (1.7%), temporary hypocalcemia (16.9%) and permanent hypocalcemia (3.9%). Of all patients, 43 (24.1%) had preoperatively metastatic cervical nodes. Of the 175 patients, 52 (29.2%) had postoperative nodal metastasis. Local recurrences had occurred in 17 patients (9.6%). According to the AMES classification, 114 cases (64.1%) fell into the low risk group and 64 cases (35.9%) to the high risk group. The 10-year survival rate was 100% for the low risk group but 91.2% for the high risk group. The 10-year disease free survival rate was 92% for the low risk and 81.2% for the high risk group. CONCLUSION: We reaffirmed that the clinical characteristics of thyroid papillary cancer corresponded with the reports of other foreign studies. We suggest that this study needs to be followed up by a larger, long-term research.