Background: Extrathyroidal extension of differentiated thyroid cancer is a poor outcome factor but seems to be less significant in minimal extrathyroidal extension (mETE). However, the impact of mETE on response rate after (adjuvant) initial radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy remains unclear. We therefore compared response rates of patients with classical and follicular variants of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) according to the updated eighth tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification to a control group.
Methods: 455 patients with T3 (primary tumor > 4 cm) PTC according to the seventh classification who underwent total thyroidectomy followed by RAI therapy were screened. Patients formerly classified as T3 PTC solely due to mETE were reclassified into patients with T1 (primary tumor ≤ 2 cm) or T2 (primary tumor > 2 cm but ≤ 4 cm) +mETE and compared to a control group of T1/T2 -mETE PTC patients.
Results: 138/455 patients were reclassified as T1/2 +mETE and compared to 317/455 T1/T2 -mETE control patients. At initial presentation, +mETE patients showed significantly higher rates of cervical lymph node metastases (p-value 0.001). Response rates were comparable in both groups (p-value n.s.). N1a/N1b-stage (Hazard ratio, HR 0.716; 95% CI 0.536-0.956, p-value 0.024) was identified as an independent prognostic factor for lower response rates.
Conclusion: Response rates after RAI therapy were comparable in PTC patients irrespective of mETE but with higher rates of lymph node metastases.
Keywords: differentiated thyroid cancer; minimal extrathyroidal extension; papillary thyroid cancer; radioactive iodine therapy.