Retrospective evaluation of demographic, clinical, and follow-up processes of thyroid tumors with uncertain malignant potential and non-invasive follicular tumors

Our study aims to improve our clinical practice by assessing the clinical features, treatments, and follow-ups of the patients diagnosed with Non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary like nuclear features (NIFTP), Well-differentiated thyroid neoplasm of uncertain malignant potential (WDT-UMP), Follicular tumor of uncertain malignant potential (FT-UMP), and Hurthle cell neoplasm of uncertain malignant potential (HCN-UMP). In this study, demographic and clinical characteristics, laboratory results, preoperative ultrasound (US) reports, treatment and follow-up processes of 49 patients who underwent subtotal and total thyroidectomy and were pathologically diagnosed with WDT-UMP, FT-UMP, HCN-UMP, and NIFTP in Bursa Uludag University Medical Faculty Hospital between 2015-2020 were retrospectively analyzed, and no statistically significant difference was found. No statistically significant difference was found between the diagnosis-related groups in the post-op histopathological evaluation regarding the type of operation, accompanying micropapillary carcinoma, tumor size, and presence of a capsule. A statistically significant difference was found in capsule invasion and capsule irregularity among the groups. Capsule invasion and capsular irregularity were not observed in the NIFTP group. Among the 49 patients included in our study, 8 patients received Radioactive Iodine (RAI) treatment, 41 did not, and no relapse was detected in any patient. Tumor size was greater than 4 cm in 13 patients, and only 1 patient from this group had received RAI treatment. This outcome supports the argument that large-sized tumors could also be followed without RAI treatment which our study may contribute to the literature in this respect.