[Retrospective analysis of clinical pathology status of minor differentiated thyroid cancer]

Objective: To analyze the clinical pathology status of minor differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Methods: The clinical pathology data of 107 cases of DTC patients aging≤18 years old who accepted operations at Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2000 to December 2016 were collected. There were 27 males and 80 females, aged (15.4±2.7) years (range: 6 to 18 years). And a randomly selected sample's data was collected as control group, concluded 110 adult DTC patients. There were 35 males and 75 females, aged (43.2±11.8) years (range: 21 to 77 years). The clinical and pathological data of the two groups were retrospectively analyzed. The t test, Mann-Whitney U test, χ(2) test and Fisher exact test was used to analyze the data, respectively. Results: The minor patients had larger diameter of tumors ((16.5±9.9) mm vs. (8.7±5.1) mm, t=7.369, P=0.000), higher rate of lymph node metastasis (68.2% vs. 50.0%, χ(2)=7.446, P=0.006) and higher rate of lateral lymph node metastasis (36.4% vs. 11.8%, χ(2)=18.059, P=0.000) than adult patients. The rate of lateral lymph node metastasis was significantly higher when minor presented multiple fociin primary lesions (54.3% vs. 27.8%, χ(2)=7.144, P=0.008) than those with single foci lesions. Adult patients presented more capsular invasion than minor patients in primary lesions (55.6% vs. 19.2%, χ(2)=28.942, P=0.000). Conclusions: The minor DTC patients present more progress disease status when they receive operations compared with the adult DTC patients. Minor DTC patients appeared as multiple foci should be alert to lateral lymph node metastasis.