Abstract
Purpose: Survival outcomes in patients presenting with well-differentiated thyroid cancer with pulmonary metastasis are variable. The aim of this study was to evaluate prognostic factors for outcome in this patient population. Methods: A prospective registry database was searched to identify patients presenting with pulmonary metastasis from well-differentiated thyroid cancer. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy and postoperative I-131 therapy. Cox proportional hazards modeling was performed to evaluate prognostic factors for survival outcomes. Results: Forty (40) patients were identified with well-differentiated thyroid cancer involving the thyroid and metastatic to cervical lymph nodes and lung at initial diagnosis. The median follow-up was 9.7 years for those alive at last follow-up. Cox proportional hazards modeling evaluated age at diagnosis, gender, primary tumor size, and vascular invasion on cause-specific and progression-free survivals. Age at diagnosis was the only significant independent prognostic factor (p = 0.0035). The 10-year cause-specific survivals were 100% in patient's ≤40 years, compared to 36% for those >40 years (p < 0.0001). The corresponding 10-year progression-free survivals were 69% and 12% (p = 0.0003). Conclusions: Patients ≤40 years of age presenting with pulmonary metastasis from well-differentiated thyroid cancer had an excellent prognosis. Older patients have a poor survival outcome. Postoperative I-131 therapy is recommended in all patients.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 655-659 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2008 |
Keywords
- I-131
- Lung
- Metastasis
- Pulmonary
- Thyroid cancer