Postmenopause is associated with recurrence of differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma.
Differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma (D-PTC) is the most common malignancy arising in the thyroid gland. There are gender differences in the incidence of PTC being mainly observed in females. Low-risk groups consisted of men younger than 40-year-old and women younger than 50-year-old, whereas the high-risk group are older patients. We believe that age is not enough to explain the clinical course of this neoplasm and hypothesize that aggressive behavior of D-PTC may be correlated with hormonal status. Studies that support this idea showed that the follicular neoplastic cells had higher estrogen receptor-alpha in premenopausal (28.1+/-4.5) than in postmenopausal women (14.2+/-2.9). According to author's prior observations, there are evidences correlating recurrence of D-PTC with postmenopause in women. Postmenopause status is characterized by estrogen decrease and FSH increases both associated with EGFR activation. Previous observations identified EGFR over-expression in D-PTC of postmenopause when compared with premenopausal ladies.


CONCLUSIONS
Postmenopause is an adverse factor for tumor evolution in women with D-PTC and is associated with EGFR expression. It's introduction in thyroid tumor stratification could be a fine tuning in predicting papillary thyroid carcinoma behavior.
Candanedo-Gonzalez
Fernando A
FA
Department of Pathology, National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition Salvador Zubirán, Vasco de Quiroga No. 15, Section XVI, Tlalpan 14000, Mexico City, Mexico.
Gamboa-Dominguez
Armando
A
D017677:Age Distribution; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004967:Estrogens / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000097:blood*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology*
D004967:Estrogens; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone