Upstaging papillary lesions to carcinoma on surgical excision is not impacted by patient race

The management of papillary lesions is controversial with studies showing different rates of upstaging to malignancy. There is a paucity of research into race as an independent risk factor. The aim of this study is to identify if race is correlated with upstaging to malignancy with a secondary focus of analyzing for other personal and tumor specific risk factors for upstaging.

We performed a retrospective review of 123 papillary lesions with univariate analysis to identify risk factors for upstaging.

The incidence of papillary lesions found on core needle biopsy was 6%. Atypical papillary lesions were most likely to be upstaged to malignancy at a rate of 27.7%. Papillary lesions and papillary lesions with hyperplasia were also upstaged to cancer at a lower rate of 8.3% and 12.5%, respectively. A univariate analysis of all papillary lesions and a separate analysis of atypical lesions demonstrated a higher likelihood of upstage based on BIRADS classification. Race, age, size of tumor and other radiographic features were not associated with an increased risk for upstaging to malignancy.

Atypia remains the most significant contributor to the risk of upstaging papillary lesions to malignancy. Our research supports the practice of excising all atypical papillary lesions with selected excision of those without atypia. In our cohort, there was no association between race and risk of upstaging to malignacy.