Outcome of patients treated for cervical recurrence of papillary or follicular thyroid cancer.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment and outcome of patients with local recurrence (LR) of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. This retro spective study concerned patients treated between 1974 and 1990 for papilla ry or follicular thyroid cancer. Our patients had at least one LR. LR diagn osed within 6 months after thyroidectomy and patients with increased serum thyroglobulin levels were excluded. Thirty one patients (80 % female) aged 15 to 84 years had at least one LR. LR was diagnosed 7 to 200 months after thyroidectomy (mean 63.7). There were 25 papillary and 6 follicular cancers . There were 1.5 LR per patient (range 1-6). LR were treated by radioiodine in 21 cases and by surgery in 22 cases. Among the 22 surgically treated pa tients, 7 had nodal recurrences, 7 had nodes and tumor, 3 had only tumor, 1 had recurrence in the remnant thyroid. After a mean follow-up of 75.8 mont hs, II patients had distant metastases, 11 had died from their thyroid carc inoma (7 after metastases). Three of the 7 patients with nodal recurrence d ied. In one third of cases, LR announced distant metastases. Node recurrenc e had a poor prognosis.