Prognostic Factors of Sugitani and Fujimoto for a Patient with a Papillary Microcarcinoma of the Thyroid Gland

 

A papillary microcarcinoma is defined as one <= 1.0 cm in diameter.

 

Most patients with a microcarcinoma are asymptomatic with an excellent prognosis. However, there is a group that may have progressive disease.

 

Factors identifying a high risk group:

(1) presence of clinically apparent cervical lymphadenopathy

(2) recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy

(3) tumors that are highly fibrotic (sclerosing), non-encapsulated or histologically invasive

(4) presence of hematogenous metastases

 

The authors clinically followed patients without any of the high risk features. A patient in the high risk group may benefit from more aggressive management. However, some high risk patients did not benefit from aggressive management with total thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine.