Concepts of Pathological Staging and Prognosis in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/Union for International Cancer Control (AJCC/UICC) staging and American Thyroid Association (ATA) risk predication system are the best predicators of mortality and cancer recurrence, respectively, in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma, including papillary thyroid carcinoma. In ATA risk stratification of differentiated thyroid carcinomas, clinical features, nodal features, and pathological features are assessed. Many of the features are also assessed in pathological staging. The prognostic stage grouping of papillary thyroid carcinoma in AJCC/UICC depends on the age of the patients as well as the standard parameters-extent of tumor (T), lymph node status (N), and presence of distant metastasis (M). Major changes noted in the current pathological staging protocol include the cut-off age from 45-year to 55-year in grouping of patients, use of gross invasion of strap muscles instead of minimal microscopic extrathyroidal extensions as T3b and downstage of many prognostic groups such as those with lymph node metastases (without distant metastases) from Stage III to Stage II. The staging protocol have moved many patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma into good prognostic groups for better predication of patients' survival rates and to avoid unnecessary treatment. This new approach has been verified by different groups globally, although modifications could be expected in the future for better prognostic assessment in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma.