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. 2023 Nov 14;57(6):289–304. doi: 10.4132/jptm.2023.10.04

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

NS from 0 to 3 in encapsulated follicular pattern tumors results in variable benign, borderline, or malignant diagnoses between Asian and Western pathologists. Four illustrations (NS 0–1, NS 1–2, NS 2–3, and NS 3 or more) in encapsulated follicular pattern tumors often result in diverse benign, borderline, or malignant diagnoses among pathologists [5-7]. The two illustrations on the left are FA when noninvasive or FTC when invasive in Asian thyroid practice because those extremely delicate nuclear features are insufficient for PTC-type malignancy. Most Western pathologists accept nuclear features in the three illustrations (NS 1–2, NS 2–3, and NS 3 or more) on the right as positive for PTC-N and call them using the same diagnostic terminology, PTC type nuclear features, regardless of different genetic backgrounds, BRAF or RAS oncogene lineages [1-3,21-23]. Some Asian pathologists distinguish nuclear features in the two illustrations (NS of 2–3 and NS of 3 or more) on the right, either RAS-like FV-PTC or BRAF-like conventional PTC [14,16,35]. NS, nuclear score defined by Nikiforov et al. [2,23]. NS, nuclear scoring; FA, follicular adenoma; FTC, follicular thyroid carcinoma; NIFTP, noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillarylike nuclear features; PTC, papillary thyroid carcinoma; PTC-N, papillary thyroid carcinoma type nuclear features; FV-PTC, follicular variant PTC; RAS, rat sarcoma virus; BRAF, v-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B.