title: Recurrence in patients with clinically early-stage papillary thyroid carcinoma according to tumor size and surgical extent.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate whether post-treatment recurrence differs by tumor size or surgical extent in clinically early-stage papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1,041 surgical patients with PTC 4 cm or less and no clinical evidence of metastases to regional or distant sites were included. Cox proportional hazard models were used to identify the clinicopathological variables predictive of post-treatment recurrence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Central nodal involvement was found in 313 (34.1%) of 918 patients who underwent prophylactic central lymph node dissection. For the median follow-up of 83 months, 25 (2.4%) of 1,041 patients had a regional recurrence and 12 (1.2%) patients died of other causes. Male gender, tumor size, extranodal extension, and positive resection margin remained independent variables predictive of recurrence by multivariate analysis (P < .05 each). There was no significant impact of age (<45 vs ≥45 years, P = .944) or surgical extent (unilateral vs bilateral thyroidectomy, P = .776) on recurrence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tumor size in patients with PTC of 4 cm or less is an important predictive factor for post-treatment recurrence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ji Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: rohjl@amc.seoul.kr.
authors.forename: Jong-Lyel
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Roh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Gyungyup
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung-Ja
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seung-Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Soon Yuhl
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 05505, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Yoon
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D037981:Neck Dissection / Q000379:methods*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Recurrence; Risk factor; Surgery; Tumor size