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Updated: Jan 28, 2026

Transoral Robotic Total Thyroidectomy and Bilateral Central Regional Lymph Node Dissection for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma
Published on: September 15, 2023
Clonal analysis of early-stage bilateral papillary thyroid cancer identifies field cancerization
Xingyun Su1, Shitu Chen1, Kuifeng He1
1Cancer Center, First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Introduction:
Bilaterality is a newly identified indicator for aggressive tumor behavior and poor outcome in papillary thyroid cancer. However, the clonal origin of these bilateral tumors remains unclear.
Methods:
Here we analyzed 28 pairs of early-stage papillary thyroid cancers (stage I-II without extra-thyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis) that underwent surgery at First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (Hangzhou, China). Genomic DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded tissues after microdissection and analyzed for BRAF mutation and X-chromosome inactivation.
Results:
A total of 16 patients (16/28, 57.1%) harbored different BRAF status in bilateral tumors. Fourteen patients were available for X-chromosome inactivation assay and 10 of them achieved informative results. Bilateral tumors from four cases had distinct patterns of X-chromosome inactivation. Combining the results of X-chromosome inactivation and BRAF analysis, we demonstrated that at least 64.3% (18/28) cases harbored discordant X-chromosome inactivation or BRAF status, indicating their independent clonal origin in bilateral tumors.
Conclusions:
The present study confirms "field cancerization" in early-stage bilateral thyroid cancers, suggesting that these subtype papillary thyroid cancers should be treated as independent and localized tumors.
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