Clinicopathologic Characteristics and Surgical Outcomes of Elderly Patients with Thyroid Cancer

Objective: Age is one of the important prognostic factors in thyroid cancer, and old age is gen-erally related to higher rate of post-operative morbidity and mortality. The study analyzed the characteristics of thyroid cancer in elderly patients compared with those in younger patients. Methods: Patients who underwent surgery between 1992 and 2011 were enrolled. The patients were divided into those 70 years of age (older group) and,70 years of age (younger group). Data including clinicopathological features and post-operative complications was analyzed. Molecular markers including Galectin-3, Cyclooxygenase-2, bcl-2, Cyclin D1, Epidermal growth factor receptor and BRAF mutation were reviewed. Survival analyses including recurrence-free survival and overall survival were examined. Results: Of 1867 patients, 98 were age-classified in older group and the remaining 1769 were in younger group. Older group displayed larger tumor size, and increased extrathyroidal extension, vascular invasion and neural invasion than younger group, and all were statistically significant. Molecular marker analyses revealed no significant differences between the groups. Post-operative complication rates were not significantly different between the older and younger groups in both univariate and multivariate analyses. Elderly patients showed poor recurrence