Postoperative Nomogram for Predicting Cancer-Specific Mortality in Medullary Thyroid Cancer

Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare thyroid cancer accounting for 5 % of all thyroid malignancies. The purpose of our study was to design a predictive nomogram for cancer-specific mortality (CSM) utilizing clinical, pathological, and biochemical variables in patients with MTC.

MTC patients managed entirely at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center between 1986 and 2010 were identified. Patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics were recorded, and variables predictive of CSM were identified by univariable analyses. A multivariable competing risk model was then built to predict the 10-year cancer specific mortality of MTC. All predictors of interest were added in the starting full model before selection, including age, gender, pre- and postoperative serum calcitonin, pre- and postoperative CEA, RET mutation status, perivascular invasion, margin status, pathologic T status, pathologic N status, and M status. Stepdown method was used in model selection to choose predictive variables.

Of 249 MTC patients, 22.5 % (56/249) died from MTC, whereas 6.4 % (16/249) died secondary to other causes. Mean follow-up period was 87 ± 67 months. The seven variables with the highest predictive accuracy for cancer specific mortality included age, gender, postoperative calcitonin, perivascular invasion, pathologic T status, pathologic N status, and M status. These variables were used to create the final nomogram. Discrimination from the final nomogram was measured at 0.77 with appropriate calibration.

We describe the first nomogram that estimates cause-specific mortality in individual patients with MTC. This predictive nomogram will facilitate patient counseling in terms of prognosis and subsequent clinical follow up.