The Role of postoperative external beam radiotherapy for differentiated thyroid carcinoma: A Systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract Background Locoregional recurrence is common in patients with locally advanced differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). Our aim was to find out the rate of locoregional control of the disease after external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) of the neck and mediastinum in patients with DTC and pT4 tumor. Patients and methods Altogether 91 patients (47 males, 44 females, median age 61 years) with DTC had EBRT of the neck and mediastinum as part of the multimodal treatment of pT4 tumor (63 cases pT4a, 28 cases pT4b) from the year 1973 to 2015. Data on clinical factors, histopathology and recurrence were collected. Disease-free, disease-specific and overall survival was calculated. Results Median tumor size was 5 cm (range 1–30 cm). Out of 91 patients, 23 had distant and 38 regional metastases. A total or near-total thyroidectomy, lobectomy, subtotal thyroidectomy and lymph node dissection was performed in 70%, 14%, 2% and 30% of cases, respectively. Thirteen percent of patients were not treated with surgery. All patients had EBRT and 39 had chemotherapy. Radioiodine (RAI) ablation of thyroid remnant and RAI therapy was applied in 90% and 40% of cases, respectively. Recurrence was diagnosed in 29/64 patients without a persistent disease: locoregional and distant in 16 and 13 cases, respectively. Five-year and ten-year disease-free survival rate was 64% and 48%, respectively. Conclusions The majority of patients with DTC and pT4 tumors who were treated with EBRT of the neck and mediastinum region as part of multimodal treatment have long-lasting locoregional control of the disease.

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Unstimulated high-sensitive thyroglobulin is a powerful prognostic predictor in patients with thyroid cancer

Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) ◽

10.1515/cclm-2019-0654 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 58 (1) ◽

pp. 130-137 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Luca Giovanella ◽

Marco Castellana ◽

Pierpaolo Trimboli

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma ◽

Level Of Evidence ◽

Prognostic Performance ◽

Clinical Scenarios ◽

High Level ◽

Operating Points

Abstract Background Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) has an excellent prognosis and the role of high-sensitive thyroglobulin measured during levothyroxine (ON-T4 hs-Tg) testing to discriminate patients with structural from not-evidence of disease (SED and NED, respectively) has been investigated. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the performance of ON-T4 hs-Tg in two clinical scenarios considering its negative predictive value (NPV) as primary outcome: (1) diagnostic performance of Tg when undetectable value and NED status are simultaneously demonstrated; (2) prognostic performance of undetectable Tg in predicting NED in the subsequent follow-up. Methods This systematic review and meta-analysis were registered on PROSPERO (CRD42019125092). PubMed, Scopus, CENTRAL and Web of Science were searched until February 12, 2019. Original articles reporting data on SED/NED in patients with detectable/undetectable ON-T4 hs-Tg were selected. Summary operating points were estimated using a random-effects model. Results Out of 1413 retrieved papers, 10 studies evaluating 1796 patients were included. Participants were outpatients diagnosed with DTC, treated with near-total (NTx) or total thyroidectomy (TTx) with or without radioactive iodine (RAI). The NPV of ON-T4 hs-Tg for diagnostic and prognostic performance was 99.4% (95% CI 98.9–99.9; I2 = 13%) and 99.4% (95% CI 98.8–100; I2 = 0%), respectively. Conclusions Our findings show that ON-T4 hs-Tg is an excellent diagnostic tool and prognostic factor to rule-out SED. A high level of evidence is provided to decrease the intensity and frequency of follow-up in those DTC patients having undetectable high-sensitive Tg.

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