Role of the Degree of Vascular Invasion in Predicting Prognosis of Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: The present study investigated the prognostic factors for follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) with the incorporation of the histologic subtype and degree of vascular invasion (VI).

Patients: The records of 474 patients with FTC confirmed by surgical specimens at Ito Hospital from January 2005 to December 2014 were reviewed in this retrospective cohort study. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to determine factors associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and distant metastasis-free survival.

Results: Of the 474 patients, 140 (30%) had minimally invasive FTC, 260 (55%) had encapsulated angio-invasive FTC, and 74 (16%) had widely invasive FTC. Among the 428 patients with M0 FTC, the 10-year DFS rates of patients with minimally invasive FTC (n = 133), encapsulated angio-invasive FTC (n = 247), and widely invasive FTC (n = 48) were 97.3%, 84.2%, and 69.9% (P < .001), respectively. A multivariate analysis identified aged ≥55 years (hazard ratio [HR], 2.204; 95% CI, 1.223-3.969; P = .009), histologic subtype (HR, 2.068; 95% CI, 1.064-4.021; P = .032), VI of ≥2 (HR, 6.814; 95% CI, 3.157-14.710; P < .001), and tumor size >40 mm (HR, 2.014; 95% CI, 1.089-3.727; P = .026) as independent negative prognostic factors for DFS.

Conclusion: Our study results may enable us to stratify the prognosis of FTC more accurately by combining the histologic subtype with the degree of VI ≥2, aged ≥55 years, and tumor size >40 mm.

Keywords: follicular thyroid carcinoma; prognosis; vascular invasion.