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High rate incidence of post-surgical adverse events in patients with low-risk papillary thyroid cancer who did not accept active surveillance

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Abstract

Purpose

To describe the outcomes and the incidence of adverse events following active surveillance (AS) versus immediate surgery in patients with low-risk papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Methods

We prospectively evaluated 286 patients who attended the Hospital de Clínicas, with a single thyroid nodule <1.5 cm classified as Bethesda category V or VI (PTC). Those patients with no aggressive features were considered as harboring a low-risk PTC and were offered AS or immediate surgery. For patients who opted for AS, surgery was recommended if tumor progression was observed. Post-operative adverse events were recorded for those patients treated with surgery (after AS or immediate surgery).

Results

From 286 eligible patients, 164 harbored a low-risk PTC. Among these, 75% (n = 123) underwent immediate surgery and 25% (n = 41) opted for AS. Within the last group, increase in tumor size more than 3 mm was observed in 14.6 and 4.8% was diagnosed with lymph-node metastases after a median of 37.5 months (range, 12–65) of follow-up. One hundred and thirty five patients underwent surgery: in 123, it was immediate after diagnosis and in 12 after a median of 35 months (range, 12–65) of AS. Both groups had excellent oncological outcomes. The frequency of postoperative adverse events was 24.4%, which was permanent in 9.6% of cases. The immediate-surgery group presented higher incidence of permanent vocal cord paralysis (2.4 vs. 0%); permanent hypoparathyroidism (5.7 vs. 0%) and local complications (4 vs. 2.4%) compared with the AS group, all non-statistically significant.

Conclusions

The high incidence of postoperative complications observed in our media could be avoided if AS was performed as the initial approach in patients with low-risk PTCs. The frequency of tumor growth and LN metastases during AS was similar to other series.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Endocrinology, Hospital de Clínicas, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Anabella Smulever & Fabián Pitoia

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  1. Anabella Smulever
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  2. Fabián Pitoia
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by AS and FP. The first draft of the paper was written by AS and FP and all authors commented on previous versions of the paper. All authors read and approved the final paper.

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Correspondence to Fabián Pitoia.

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Smulever, A., Pitoia, F. High rate incidence of post-surgical adverse events in patients with low-risk papillary thyroid cancer who did not accept active surveillance. Endocrine 69, 587–595 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-020-02310-8

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