Risk Stratification of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: A Single-Center Study in Basrah

Background Differentiated thyroid cancer is a common endocrine cancer; most of it has an indolent course and favorable outcomes, with a subset of patients having the risk of disease recurrence, which can be assessed using the fixed American Thyroid Association (ATA) risk stratification system or the dynamic response to therapy risk stratification that can be modified during patients follow-up. Aim The aim of this article is to assess the risk stratification of patients having differentiated thyroid cancer. Methods This is a retrospective cross-sectional study in which we evaluated medical records of 75 patients having differentiated thyroid cancer to assess the baseline ATA risk of recurrence and compared it to the results of dynamic risk stratification in response to therapy at 6-12 months post-surgery and at the last visit. Thyroglobulin level, anti-thyroglobulin antibody, thyroid ultrasound, and cytopathological examination were used to determine dynamic response to therapy and divided subjects into four groups: excellent response (ER), biochemical incomplete response (BIR), structural incomplete response (SIR), and indeterminate response (IR). Results At baseline, 55 patients had low risk, 14 patients had intermediate risk, and six patients had high risk. At 6-12 months post-surgery, in the low-risk group, ER, BIR, and IR responses were observed in 56.4%, 5.5%, and 38.2% of patients, respectively, and none of them exhibited SIR. In the intermediate-risk group, ER, BIR, and IR responses were observed in 57.1%, 21.4%, and 21.4% of patients, respectively, and none exhibited SIR. Among the high-risk group, two patients had ER, two patients had BIR, one patient had IR, and one patient had SIR. At the last visit, ER, BIR, and IR were observed in 65.5%, 9.1%, and 25.5% of low-risk patients, respectively, and no patient developed SIR. In the intermediate-risk group, ER, BIR, and IR were observed in 50%, 21.4%, and 28.6% of patients, respectively, and no patients developed SIR. Among the high-risk group, three patients achieved ER, one had BIR, one had IR, and one had SIR. Conclusion Most of the differentiated thyroid cancers in this study are low-risk. Dynamic risk stratification appears to be an effective tool in the follow-up of this population of patients having differentiated thyroid cancer.