Aggressiveness of the tall cell variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma is independent of the tumor size and patient age

Villar‑Taibo,Rocío; Peteiro‑González,Diego; Cabezas‑Agrícola,José  Manuel; Aliyev,Elvin; Barreiro‑Morandeira,Francisco; Ruiz‑Ponte,Clara; Cameselle‑Teijeiro,José  M.

doi:10.3892/ol.2017.5948

Aggressiveness of the tall cell variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma is independent of the tumor size and patient age

Authors:
- Rocío Villar‑Taibo
- Diego Peteiro‑González
- José Manuel Cabezas‑Agrícola
- Elvin Aliyev
- Francisco Barreiro‑Morandeira
- Clara Ruiz‑Ponte
- José M. Cameselle‑Teijeiro
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Affiliations: Department of Endocrinology, University of León Hospital, León 24071, Spain, Department of Endocrinology, Hospital El Bierzo, Ponferrada 24411, Spain, Department of Endocrinology, Clinical University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Galician Healthcare Service, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 15706, Spain, Department of Pediatric Surgery, ʻFederico Gomezʼ Children's Hospital, México City 06720, México, Department of Surgery, Clinical University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Galician Healthcare Service, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 15706, Spain, Galician Public Foundation of Genomic Medicine, Centre for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases, Santiago de Compostela 15706, Spain, Department of Anatomic Pathology, Clinical University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Galician Healthcare Service, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 15706, Spain
Published online on: March 29, 2017 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2017.5948
Pages: 3501-3507
Copyright: © Villar‑Taibo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

The tall cell variant (TCV) of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is characterized by tall columnar cells with a height of at least three times their width. TCV usually presents at an older age, has a larger size and exhibits more extrathyroidal extension and metastases than classical PTC. The current study compared TCV with the classical and follicular variants (CaFVs) of PTC to determine if, irrespective of the age at diagnosis and tumor size, TCV is more aggressive than its classical and follicular counterparts. A total of 16 (3.66%) patients with TCV were identified in a series of 437 patients with PTC from the Clinical University Hospital (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) between 1990 and 2010. The patient clinicopathological features and B‑Raf proto‑oncogene (BRAF)V600E mutational status were compared with 34 cases of CaFVs of PTC matched for tumor size and patient age. The TCV series included 11 females and 5 males aged 15‑74 years (median, 57 years). In total, 15 (93.8%) patients underwent total or near‑total thyroidectomy, 1 underwent lobectomy and 5 (31.3%) underwent lymph node dissection. In the TCV series, the tumor size ranged from 5‑45 mm (median, 19 mm). Compared with the CaFVs, the TCV of PTC exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of extrathyroidal extension [9/16 (56.3%) vs. 5/34 (14.7%) cases; P=0.007], lymph node metastases [9/16 (56.3%) vs. 9/34 (26.4%) cases; P=0.04], stage III/IV at presentation [10/16 (62.5%) vs. 7/34 (20.5%) cases; P=0.009] and BRAFV600E mutation [12/16 (80.0%) vs. 7/25 (28.0%) cases; P=0.004]. The TCV series also harbored more multifocal papillary carcinomas (50.0% vs. 26.4%), lymphovascular invasion (37.5% vs. 29.4%) and distant metastases (6.2% vs. 0.0%), as compared with the matched patient cohort. In conclusion, the TCV of PTC is frequently associated with BRAFV600E mutation and is more aggressive than the CaFVs of PTC, regardless of tumor size and patient age at diagnosis.

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