Abstract
Objectives:
Ultrasonography (USG) is a powerful tool for evaluation of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Preoperative USG characteristics correlated with several prognostic factors for PTC. Tumor fibrosis is known to be an important histologic prognostic features in head and neck cancer. However, there is a lack of studies for tumor fibrosis in PTC. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between ultrasonographic finding and intratumoral fibrosis and growth pattern in PTC.
Methods:
In all, 170 fresh cases with PTC patients underwent total thyroidectomy with central neck dissection (CND). Lateral neck dissection was performed in case of lateral neck metastasis. Retrospective analysis for USG finding such as echogenicity and pathologic characteristics including intratumoral fibrosis and tumor growth pattern were conducted.
Results:
Ninety (53%) patients had USG finding with marked hypoechogenecity. According to histologic characteristics, group with marked hypoechogenecity had more tumor fibrosis and more invasive growth pattern than the group with iso- or hypoechogenecity. There was no significant difference in age, sex, tumor size, extrathyroidal extension, and presence of central or lateral neck metastasis between the two groups. In univariate and multiple regression analysis, tumor fibrosis and growth pattern were significantly associated with USG echogenecity.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that intratumoral fibrosis and tumor growth pattern are important determinants of preoperative ultrasonographic echogenecity in PTC.
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