Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34194742›Full record

ArticleMolecular and clinical oncology2021

Papillary thyroid carcinoma micro-deposits in cervical lymph nodes without intra-thyroid malignancy: A comment in consideration of the latest American Thyroid Association guidelines.

Evangelos Karvounis, Aristotelis Kechagias, Ioannis Kappas, Christina Ioakimidou, Theodoros Fillipidis

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Article in Molecular and clinical oncology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.1field-weighted citation impact, top 49% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Evangelos KarvounisDepartment of Endocrine Surgery, Center of Excellence, Euroclinic Hospital, Athens 115221, Greece.
Aristotelis KechagiasDepartment of Digestive and Endocrine Surgery, Kanta-Häme Central Hospital, Hämeenlinna 13530, Finland.
Ioannis KappasDepartment of Endocrine Surgery, Center of Excellence, Euroclinic Hospital, Athens 115221, Greece.
Christina IoakimidouDepartment of Pathology, 'Micromedica' Histopathological Laboratory, Athens 16344, Greece.
Theodoros FillipidisDepartment of Pathology, 'Micromedica' Histopathological Laboratory, Athens 16344, Greece.
Athens Euroclinic · GRKanta-Hämeen Keskussairaala · FI

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) represents the vast majority of all thyroid cancers, with the papillary variant being the most common. According to the previous 2009 American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines, papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC; ≤1 cm in diameter) exhibiting cervical lymph node metastasis corresponded to an intermediate-risk group for recurrence or metastasis. However, the latest 2015 ATA guidelines advocate that a patient with PTMC is low-risk if there are ≤5 regional node micrometastases. This means that therapeutic radioactive iodine (RAI) is not required. The current study reports a rare case of a patient who underwent total thyroidectomy due to multi-nodular goiter where the pathologic specimen exhibited two PTMC foci in regional lymph nodes, but no primary cancer was identified in the thyroid despite thorough examination of the thyroid parenchyma. The etiology of such results is unknown and it was hypothesized that it may be the consequence of insufficient pathologic examination or due to the regression of a primary PTMC in the thyroid. Moreover, the risk-stratification of cases with intra-lymph node PTMC without any evidence of primary cancer in the thyroid is not considered in the ATA recommendations. The aim of the current report was to elucidate the risk-stratification of this rare occurrence and to reconsider the possible etiologies. By extrapolating the latest ATA recommendations concerning a patient with a known primary PTMC and ≤5 metastatic micro-foci (thus the only difference between cases being the absence of a primary tumor), it was concluded that the patient should be considered low-risk. As a consequence, RAI therapy should be deemed as unnecessary despite the presence of lymph node microfoci. Moreover, it was proposed that cervical lymph node PTMC with no evidence of a primary tumor in the thyroid could be the consequence of normal thyroid tissue micro-deposit progression to cancer within the lymph node, which is a rare benign entity.

Indexed as

American Thyroid Associationcervical lymphnode metastasesdifferentiated thyroid cancermicrofocimicrometastasespapillary thyroid carcinomapapillary thyroid microcarcinoma

Identifiers

PMID34194742
PMCPMC8237160
OpenAlexW3175027897

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.