The relation between pure papillary and follicular variant in papillary thyroid carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Pure papillary thyroid carcinoma and the follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma are the most common subtypes of papillary thyroid carcinoma. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of prognostic factors of these two subgroups in our series.


METHODS
Histopathological type of carcinoma was retrospectively revised in 199 patients who were then divided according to such type. Patients' age and gender as well as the size and multicentricity of tumor, association with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, serum thyroglobulin and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies levels, metastatic lymph node and distant metastases status for both groups were evaluated.


RESULTS
Gender, size, multicentricity of tumor, serum thyroglobulin and anti-thyroglobulin levels were similar in both groups. It was found that, although the tumor size of pure papillary thyroid carcinoma was smaller than that of follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma, lymph node metastases occurred more frequently when both subgroups were examined.


CONCLUSIONS
The pathological and clinical signs of pure papillary thyroid carcinoma and follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma were found similar. According to these results, this study does not support the literature which claims that follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma is more aggressive than pure papillary thyroid carcinoma. Moreover, it could be assumed that the number of patients who are diagnosed as pure papillary thyroid carcinoma may be higher when associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Yuksel
O
O
Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Ankara, Turkey.
Kurukahvecioglu
O
O
Ege
B
B
Ekinci
O
O
Aydin
A
A
Poyraz
A
A
Tezel
E
E
Taneri
F
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D018265:Carcinoma, Papillary, Follicular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013954:Thyroglobulin / Q000097:blood; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D013965:Thyroidectomy
D001323:Autoantibodies; C006606:anti-thyroglobulin; D013954:Thyroglobulin