Functional results and quality of life after tracheal resection for locally invasive thyroid cancer

Health‐related quality of life among thyroid cancer survivors: a systematic review

“…Comparison of the results of the included survivorship studies using the SF-36 as HRQoL questionnaire 27,[29][30][31] with data from studies with patients with chronic disorders showed that thyroid cancer survivors reported better HRQoL scores on all SF-36 subscales compared to patients with chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, fibromyalgia and depression. Other problems were small sample sizes (<100 patients), 10,11,[13][14][15]17,18,20,22,24,28,34 lack of (healthy) control groups 12,13,[20][21][22][23][24]34,36 and use of cross-sectional designs. 38,40 The results of the studies discussed in this review should be handled with caution.…”

The management of thyroid carcinoma invading the larynx or trachea

“…A recent study from Hu and colleagues reported macroscopic tracheal invasion in 13 of 531 patients (2.4%) with more than 5 years of follow‐up 14. In a total of 20 studies (Table I),5–7, 9–26 we found 10,251 patients with thyroid cancer, 595 (5.8%) of whom had airway invasion. In the absence of epidemiologic studies, this may be the best general estimate of laryngotracheal tumor adherence or invasion among all patients presenting for surgical resection.…”

“…Of seven patients in the series of Grillo and colleagues who underwent airway resection in the presence of pulmonary metastasis, two with undifferentiated carcinoma survived <1 year, but during a mean survival of 4.2 years the remaining patients were free of airway events 44. Quality of life for patients with thyroid carcinoma invading the airway improves after tracheal resections with end‐to‐end anastomosis 21, 51, 60, 61. Resection of the trachea invaded by tumor appears largely to accomplish the goals of preventing the dire late problems of airway obstruction and hemorrhage.…”

Tracheal reconstruction using composite nasal septal graft in patients with invasive thyroid carcinoma

“…Indeed, the extent of morbidity associated with sleeve resections is not well documented in the literature. 10 However, any advantage gained by performing a conservative procedure needs to be tempered against the significant survival disadvantage that some residual macroscopic tumour may be left behind. 4,6,9 Depth of invasion may be difficult to assess both pre-operatively (via imaging and direct visualisation with bronchoscopy) and intra-operatively, making delineation between stage II and III disease difficult.…”