title: Age and prognosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma: retrospective stratification into three groups.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the prognosis according to age in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively evaluated 2,890 patients who underwent thyroidectomy due to PTC between May 2004 and Aug 2008. We divided patients into 3 groups: young (≤35 years old), middle (between 35 and 54 years old), and old (≥55 years old).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Median age was 47.0 years old (range, 15 to 82 years). Within a follow-up period median of 50 months, there were 148 (5.1%) locoregional recurrences, 6 (0.2%) PTC-related deaths, and 18 (0.6%) PTC-unrelated deaths. Outcomes were more favorable in the young group, with no PTC-related death despite the frequent locoregional recurrence. In the old group compared to the middle, there was a higher proportion of male, and more aggressive types as T3 or N1b, higher mean tumor number, more multiplicity, and bilaterality. The old group of ≥55 years did not show a significant difference in PTC-related deaths than other age groups in Cox analysis (OR, 0.9; P = 0.677), but a significant cutoff age in PTC-related deaths at 62.5 years was determined in ROC analysis (area under curve = 0.912).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We showed that the ≤35 years group shows favorable prognosis despite the frequent locoregional recurrence and ≥62.5 years group shows a poor prognosis regardless of other factors such as male sex or tumor aggressiveness. Further multiinstitutional studies are needed to elucidate the prognosis according to patient's age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Chonnam National University College of Medicine, Gwangju, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Seong
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Jung Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Min Ho
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Sun Hyoung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Young Jong
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Jegal
authors.forename: Ji Shin
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hee Kyung
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Kim