The American Thyroid Association risk classification of papillary thyroid cancer according to presurgery cytology

Objective: To compare the American Thyroid Association (ATA) risk staging of histologically proven papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in patients who received a presurgery cytologic result of either indeterminate thyroid nodules (ITNs, Bethesda III/IV) or suspicious for malignancy/malignant (TIR 4/5, Bethesda V/VI). Methods: Clinical, ultrasonographic, cytological data from patients with histologically diagnosed PTC were retrospectively collected. Results: Patients were stratified according to the preoperative fine-needle aspiration cytology into 2 groups: 51 ITNs (TIR3A/3B) and 118 suspicious/malignant (TIR 4/5). Male/female ratio, age, and presurgery TSH level were similar between the 2 groups. At ultrasound, TIR 4/5 nodules were significantly more frequently hypoechoic (P = .037), with irregular margins (P = .041), and with microcalcifications (P = .020) and were more frequently classified as high-risk according to the European Thyroid Imaging and Reporting Data System (EU-TIRADS; P = .021). At histology, the follicular PTC subtype was significantly more prevalent among ITNs while classical PTC subtype was more frequent in TIR 4/5 group (P = .002). In TIR 4/5 group, a higher rate of focal vascular invasion (P < .001) and neck lymph node metastasis (P = .028) was observed. Intermediate-risk category according to ATA was significantly more frequent in TIR 4/5 group while low-risk category was more frequently found among ITNs (P = .021), with a higher number of patients receiving radioiodine in TIR 4/5 group (P = .002). At multivariate logistic regression, having a TIR 4/5 cytology was associated with a significant risk of having a higher ATA risk classification as compared to ITN (OR 4.6 [95% CI 1.523-14.007], P = .007), independently from presurgery findings (nodule size at ultrasound, sex, age, and EU-TIRADS score). Conclusions: Papillary thyroid cancers recorded among ITNs are likely less aggressive and are generally assessed as at lower risk according to ATA classification.