Abstract
A large number of retrospective analyses have examined patient and tumor characteristics associated with a poor prognosis in patients with follicular thyroid cancer (FTC). Compared to patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) patients are more likely to be older, more likely to be male, more likely to have unifocal disease, less likely to have direct tumor extension or cervical lymph nodes, and more likely to have distant metastases. Factors consistently found to negatively impact prognosis in follicular thyroid cancer include patient age greater than 45, tumor size larger than 4 cm, local tumor extension beyond the thyroid, extensive capsular and vascular invasion, and the presence of distant metastases. In addition, certain variants of follicular thyroid cancer, including oxyphilic (Hürthle cell) carcinomas (HCC) and insular carcinomas, are associated with a generally worse prognosis.
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Burch, H.B. (2016). Determinants of Prognosis of Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma. In: Wartofsky, L., Van Nostrand, D. (eds) Thyroid Cancer. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3314-3_79
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