Clinical and histological characteristics of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: results of a retrospective study in 243 patients

Context: The recognition of thyroid microcarcinoma has increased due to the widespread use of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsies. Objective: The objective of this study was to describe histol. and clin. characteristics of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) less than or equal to 1 cm. Design: This study was a retrospective cohort. Setting: This study was conducted at a university hospital endocrine clinic. Patients: Over a 9-yr period, 243 consecutive patients with PTMC were studied. Results: PTMC was an incidental finding at surgery in 21.4% of the PTMC cases. There were no differences in the clin. characteristics between those with incidental PTMC and those with suspected thyroid carcinoma. None of the patients with a cancer less than 8 mm had distant metastases, whereas distant metastases were obsd. in patients with cancers &rt;= 8 mm (P ? 0.05). Disease-related mortality was not obsd. Conclusions: PTMC is prevalent in the population. Among patients with PTMC, tumor size more 8 mm is assocd. with more aggressive diseas