Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology and Histological Types of Thyroid Cancer in the Elderly: Evaluation of 9070 Patients from a Single Referral Centre

Cancers

Alessio Basolo¹  Teresa Rago¹  Ferruccio Santini¹  AnelloMarcello Poma²  Elisabetta Macerola²  Valerio Batini³  Liborio Torregrossa⁴ 

[1] Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy;Department of Surgical, Medical, Molecular Pathology and Clinical Area, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy;Section of Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy;Section of Pathology, University Hospital of Pisa, Via Roma 57, 56126 Pisa, Italy;

关键词: thyroid nodules;    thyroid cancer;    elderly patients;    FNA;   

DOI  :  10.3390/cancers13040907

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background. The prevalence of thyroid nodules increases with age. Their management takes into account the presence of co-morbidities, which are frequent among the elderly. We sought to highlight the differences between the elderly and the general population in cytological and histological diagnoses. Methods. In this retrospective cohort study, we gathered 13,747 nodule data and compared cytological and histological diagnoses between patients aged over 65 years and a control group. Results. Elderly patients had a higher prevalence of cytologically benign nodules and, consequently, they were less frequently subject to surgery. However, there were no differences in terms of malignancy-risk after surgery. At histology, elderly patients often presented aggressive histology such as medullary thyroid carcinoma, poorly-differentiated and anaplastic cancer, tall cell variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma and Hürthle cell carcinoma. Even in presence of well-differentiated cancer, older patients had higher rates of local invasiveness, lateral lymph node involvement and vascular invasion. Conclusion. Thyroid nodules in elderly patients represent a challenging entity since they are very often benign, but, in case of malignancy, aggressive histotypes and high-risk features are more frequent. Therefore, presurgical characterization of nodules in older patients is crucial and might require strict monitoring.

【 授权许可】

Unknown