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Age 45 years may be too young for PTC prognostic marker
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Although age 45 years is a current prognostic marker in well-differentiated papillary thyroid cancer, researchers concluded through a review of literature that further research is necessary to determine what age is most appropriate.
Currently, age 45 years is the prognostic marker using the American Joint Cancer Committee/Union Internationale Contre le Cancer tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging system, recommended by the American Thyroid Association, European Society for Medical Oncology and the British Thyroid Association.
“It is unclear what age should be incorporated into TNM staging, as patients in their 40s and 50s continue to have very good survival from papillary thyroid cancer (PTC),” Lindsay Bischoff, MD, assistant professor of medicine, division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, said in an interview with Endocrine Today.
After analyzing the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result database for histology-confirmed PTC, Bischoff and colleagues identified 53,581 patients using the codes specific to PTC. They concluded that the appropriate age may be significantly older because patients in all age groups up to age 65 years continue to have a more than 90% 5-year survival. Patients older than 65 years demonstrated progressively less favorable prognosis.
Bischoff and colleagues found that the current age of 45 years as a prognostic marker is linked to a 1979 study that was not specific to well-differentiated thyroid cancer as well as underpowered. The researchers said the age of diagnosis may be an indicator of PTC outcomes, but age 45 years may be too young as a prognostic marker.
– by Suzanne Bryla Reist
Disclosure: Bischoff reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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