The risk of malignancy for some diagnoses in thyroid fine-needle aspirations is higher than the actual risk of clinical progression. Other measures of prognosis may be helpful in managing patients with indeterminate thyroid fine-needle aspiration diagnoses. We estimated the risk of death due to disease (RDDD) for well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma using a series of over 15 000 aspirates with over 2000 excisions and data from the SEER database. RDDD was low (1.3% or less for all categories). The RDDD of some indeterminate thyroid aspirates was higher than for malignant aspirates. The RDDD may provide additional information for patients and clinicians seeking to manage patients with indeterminate thyroid fine-needle aspirates.
Schnadig VJ. Overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer: is this not an ethical issue for pathologists as well as radiologists and clinicians? Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2018 Sep;142(9):1018-1020.
Renshaw AA, Gould EW. Reply to "Overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer: is this not an ethical issue for pathologists as well as radiologists and clinicians?". Archiv Pathol and Lab Med. in press.
National Cancer Institute. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. 2019; Available from: http://seer.cancer.gov.
Ali SZ, Cibas ES. The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology. 2nd. New York: Springer; 2018.
