Background: It is unclear whether differences in clinical presentation and/or prognosis exist between prepubertal papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and pubertal PTC. At present, there is a lack of definition for the appropriate cutoff age to define prepubertal PTC.
Methods: This study retrospectively reviewed 227 pediatric PTC patients (aged ≤18 years) who underwent initial surgery from March 2000 to December 2018. The median duration of follow-up was 85 months (range, 8-258).
Results: The age range was basically linearly related to multiple risk factors, such as T3-T4 disease, distant metastasis. Age (p = 0.032) was an independent risk factor for recurrence and persistent disease. Patients aged <14 years had obviously higher rates of extensive disease. The 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate of patients aged <14 years was 59.5% and that of patients aged ≥14 years was 82.6% (p = 0.004).
Conclusions: Fourteen years of age may be an appropriate cutoff to differentiate prepubertal PTC from pubertal PTC.
Keywords: cutoff age; pediatric differentiated thyroid cancer; prepubertal; pubertal; recurrence.
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