Survival of patients with pulmonary metastases in differentiated thyroid cancer

To clarify the factors affecting survival of the patients with differentiated thyroid cancer and pulmonary metastases, 46 patients treated at our hospital during the past 23 years were studied using statistical analysis. Nineteen patients died as a result of their thyroid cancer. The follow-up period ranged from 1 to 31 years with a median of 10.5 years. Age at primary surgery, interval between primary surgery and appearance of pulmonary metastases and RI therapy affected survival from primary surgery and age at pulmonary metastases and RI therapy determined survival after pulmonary metastases, as revealed by the Cox proportional hazard model. These results suggest that prognostic factor of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer and pulmonary metastases is the age at initial surgery and at appearance of pulmonary metastases. But RI therapy could change the course of pulmonary metastases of thyroid cancer.