Chronic Thyroiditis as a Favorable Prognostic Factor in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

Purpose: Assessment of the proliferative ability of cancer cells is necessary not only for the biologic characterization of tumors, but also for the selection of treatment and evaluation of prognosis. Recently, there have been several studies examining the proliferative activity of various malignant tumors using immunohistochemical methods. PCNA is a nuclear protein related to the cell cycle and found with high expression in proliferative tissues, including cancers. Methods: In our study, to evaluate whether PCNA expression was useful as a prognostic factor in patients with pa-pillary thyroid carcinoma, we quantitated the immunohisto-chemical expression of PCNA in the formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue from 55 patients with papillary thyroid car-cinoma and correlated the results with established clinico-pathologic parameters. Results: The results were as follows. 1) PCNA expression in papillary thyroid carcinoma did not correlate with the age, sex or metastatic L/N activity of the patient, nor with the size, invasion, or recurrence of the tumor. 2) There was a close relationship between the expression rate of PCNA in thyroid tumor cells and that in metastatic L/N cells (p=0.056, in p0.1). 3) The expression of PCNA in the metastatic L/N (+) group was higher than in the metastatic L/N (-) group (p=0.045). Conclusion: It is suggested that PCNA expression is not an appropriate prognostic factor in papillary thyroid carcino-ma. (Korean J Endocrine Surg 2001;1:61-66)

The association between papillary thyroid carcinoma and histologically proven Hashimoto's thyroiditis: a meta-analysis

“…Gender The incidence of HT in PTCs according to gender was compared in 23 studies (3,4,5,6,7,14,15,19,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38). HT in PTCs was observed in 1677 of 7346 (23%) female patients and in 180 of 573 (11%) male patients.…”

“…Survival analysis Four studies including 616 patients of PTC with HT and 4241 of PTC without HT presented recurrence-free survival outcomes (14,28,35,38). The estimated unadjusted HRs ranged from 0.547 to 0.781.…”

“…In addition, the clinicopathologic characteristics of PTCs with concomitant HT have not been definitely proposed (3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40). Therefore, the present meta-analysis was conducted to clarify the relationship between PTCs and histologically proven conventional HT and to investigate the clinicopathologic features of PTCs with coexistent HT.…”

Lymphocytes and thyroid cancer: more to it than meets the eye?

“…On the basis of FNA studies including over 18 000 patients, the prevalence of PTC in HT is estimated to about 1.2% with a non-significant risk ratio (RR) of 0.69. In contrast, prevalence of PTC in HT based on about 10 000 archival thyroid specimens is 27% (RR 1.59; Ott et al 1987, Kashima et al 1998, Loh et al 1999, Kebebew et al 2001, Jankovic et al 2013. Thus, limiting the analysis to archival thyroidectomy specimens might carry a selection bias because the indication for surgery is commonly due to the presence of suspicious nodules.…”

“…On the other hand, there is a consensus that peritumeral chronic lymphocytic infiltration alters the clinical presentation of differentiated thyroid cancer. Kebebew and others found that chronic lymphocytes infiltration in patients with PTC correlates with an improved outcome or less aggressive disease (Eisenberg & Hensley 1989, Kashima et al 1998, Kebebew et al 2001.…”