Impact of extent of resection for thyroid cancer invading the aerodigestive tract on surgical morbidity, local recurrence, and cancer-specific survival.
BACKGROUND
The appropriate resection for thyroid cancer invading the aerodigestive tract remains controversial.


METHODS
A total of 174 patients underwent resections for aerodigestive tract invasion from differentiated thyroid cancer (103 patients), medullary thyroid cancer (40 patients), and undifferentiated thyroid cancers/unusual thyroid neoplasms (31 patients). In all, 82 patients submitted to transmural resections (window resection, sleeve resection, or cervical evisceration), 65 patients underwent nontransmural resections (shaving or extramucosal esophageal resections), and 27 patients had grossly incomplete resections. The measures of outcome included surgical morbidity, locoregional recurrence, and disease-specific survival.


RESULTS
Surgical morbidity was 38% after transmural and 25% after nontransmural resection (P = .02). On histopathologic examination, surgical margins were microscopically involved in 9% of patients after transmural and 23% of patients after nontransmural resection (P = .014). At a mean follow-up of 35.3 months, locoregional recurrence developed in 10 (46%) of 22 patients with microscopically incomplete and 18 (15%) of 121 patients with microscopically complete resection (P = .001). After grossly complete resection, the mean disease-specific survival was 101.2, 69.8, and 25.5 months for differentiated thyroid cancer, medullary thyroid cancer, and undifferentiated thyroid cancer/unusual neoplasms, respectively (P < .001). This outcome was independent of the type of resection.


CONCLUSIONS
The type of cancer and resection are key determinants of outcome among thyroid cancer patients with aerodigestive tract invasion.
Department of General, Visceral and Vascular Surgery, University Hospital Halle, Germany. michael.brauckhoff@kir.uib.no
Michael
M
Brauckhoff
Andreas
A
Machens
Phuong Nguyen
PN
Thanh
Kerstin
K
Lorenz
Anja
A
Schmeil
Miriam
M
Stratmann
Carsten
C
Sekulla
Katrin
K
Brauckhoff
Henning
H
Dralle
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D004947:Esophagus / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012086:Reoperation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000379:methods*; D015996:Survival Rate; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000379:methods / Q000401:mortality; D016896:Treatment Outcome