The Clinicopathological Factors Associated with Multicentricity in Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Aim: Multicentricity is a frequent feature of papillary thyroid cancer, and is generally associated with advanced stage, increased risk of regional and distant metastasis. In this study, we aimed to determine the associated clinicopathological factors on multicentricity in papillary thyroid cancer. Material and Method: One hundred and thirty patients with papillary thyroid cancer were included in this retrospective study. The affecting clinical and histopathological factors on multicentricity were investigated. Results: Total thyroidectomy with or without central/lateral neck dissection was performed in 130 patients (101, 77.7% were female and 29, 22.3% were male) with a mean age of 43.03 years. The diagnosis of papillary thyroid cancer was confirmed by final histopathology in all cases. Multicentricity and bilaterality were detected in 54 (41.5%) and 16 (12.3%) patients, respectively. Tumor size (p= 0.046) and perineural invasion (p= 0.020) were significantly different between the patients with multicentric cancer and those with solitary cancer. Discussion: According to the findings obtained from this study, tumor size and perineural invasion were the affecting factors on multicentricity in papillary thyroid cancer. However, large-scale, multicenter clinical and genetic studies are needed to clearly determine the affecting factors on multicentricity of these cancers.