ECE2011 Poster Presentations Thyroid cancer (43 abstracts)
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Internal Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
The aim of our study is to detect parameters which may predict recurrences during long-term follow-up in papillary thyroid cancer patients who achieved remission after primary treatment. The data of 492 patients who achieved selected remission criteria after primary treatment were recorded. Remission criteria were for anti-thyroglobulin (antiTg)-negative patients: no uptake in first iodine-131 whole body scan (WBS) after primary treatment and stimulated thyroglobulin (Tg) level <2 ng/ml when TSH >30 μU/ml. Recurrence was detected in 12 of 492 patients (2.4%). Tumor size, stimulated Tg concentrations and frequency of antiTg positivity at first WBS and duration of follow up were significantly higher in patients with recurrence compared with remaining patients (P: 0.024, 0.013, 0.01, 0.002 respectively). Patients with stimulated Tg≥0.25 ng/ml at first WBS had significantly higher frequency of recurrence compared with patients having Tg<0.25 (P: 0.009). Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses indicated that lymph node metastasis at initial presentation was the only parameter significantly related to recurrences during follow-up (P: 0.011, 0.01 respectively). We conclude that patients with lymph node metastases at presentation and relatively higher (>0.25 ng/ml) Tg and anti-Tg positivity at first WBS have higher risk for recurrence.