PAPILLARY THYROID MICROCARCINOMA - CLINICAL-STUDY AND PROGNOSIS

Objective: To study the anatomical and prognostic characteristics of p apillary thyroid microcarcinomas (10 mm or less in size). Design: Retr ospective review. Setting: Community hospital, Spain. Subjects: 36 pat ients with papillary microcarcinomas diagnosed over a period of 20 yea rs from a total of 158 papillary carcinomas with complete follow-up. M ain outcome measures: Symptoms, treatment, histopathological confirmat ion and follow-up compared with those of papillary carcinomas more tha n 10 mm in size. Results: Six of the patients with microcarcinomas pre sented with adenopathy, the remaining 30 being admitted for treatment of associated thyroid diseases. In 15 cases the tumour was 5 mm or les s in size. Thirty were well-differentiated, 2 were follicular, and 2 s howed signs of diffuse sclerosis. Three had recurred after total thyro idectomy, but no patient died. When the results were compared with tho se of the patients with larger tumours, we found differences in histol ogical type (p = 0.001), the incidence of adenopathy (p = 0.03), TNM s tage (p = 0.001) and mortality (p = 0.04). Conclusions: There are clin ical, histopathological, and prognostic differences between microcarci nomas (which do well) and larger papillary tumours.