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. 2014 Nov 11;2014:685425. doi: 10.1155/2014/685425

Table 2.

Epidemiological, clinical, pathological, and prognostic features of patients with parathyroid involvement by thyroid cancer: review of the literature.

Tang et al., 2002 (Ref. [4]) Kakudo et al., 2004 (Ref. [5]) Ito et al., 2009 (Ref. [6]) Chrisoulidou et al., 2012 (Ref. [7]) Present study Total/conclusions
Rate of parathyroid involvement in thyroid cancer patients 2.2% 3.9% 1.6% 0.5% 0.4% Range: 0.4–3.9%
Number of patients enrolled 20 14 30 10 10 84
Sex 14 F, 6 M 10 F, 4 M Not reported 8 F, 2 M 7 F, 3 M F to M ratio: 2.3–4 to 1
Mean age (yrs) 52 60.4 Not reported 52.2 55 Range: 52–60.4
Primary tumor histotype 20 PTC 14 PTC 30 PTC 6 PTC 
3 FTC 
1 ATC
10 PTC 80 out of 84 cancers are PTC
Primary tumor size >1 cm 14 
≤1 cm 6
2.5 cm (mean) >1 cm 22 
≤1 cm 8
2.5 cm (mean) 2.4 cm (mean)  
>1 cm 10
Microcarcinomas are uncommon
Extrathyroid invasion of tissues other than parathyroid 10 yes 
10 no
13 yes 
1 no
8 yes 
22 no
9 yes 
1 no
6 Yes 
4 no
46 yes 
38 no
Lymph node metastases 17 yes 
3 no
13 yes 
1 no
1 yes 
29 no
5 yes 
5 no
3 yes 
7 no
39 yes 
45 no
Distant metastases 1 yes 
19 no
2 yes 
12 no
0 yes 
30 no
2 yes 
2 no
0 yes 
10 no
5 yes 
79 no
Patterns of parathyroid involvement Pattern A 15 
Pattern B 3 
Pattern C 2
Pattern A 10 
Pattern B 3 
Pattern C 1
Not reported Pattern A + B 9 
Pattern C 1
Pattern A 6 
Pattern B 1 
Pattern A + B 3
Pattern A + B 90–100% 
Pattern C 0–10%
Stage* Not reported I/II 2 
III/IV 12
pT3 30/30 I/II 3 
III/IV 7
I 2 
III 8
Recurrence Not reported 2 yes 
12 no
1 yes 
29 no
Not reported 0 yes 
10 no
Most cases 
do not recur
10-yr disease free survival rate Not reported 80.8% >95% Not reported N/A >80% in the reported cases

ATC: anaplastic thyroid carcinoma; F: female; FTC: follicular thyroid carcinoma; M: male; N/A: not applicable; PTC: papillary thyroid carcinoma; Pattern A: direct invasion by infiltrative growth from the primary thyroid carcinoma to parathyroid; Pattern B: extension of thyroid malignancy into the parathyroid, in which cancer nests are separated from by a pseudocapsule; Pattern C: true thyroid cancer metastasis within the parathyroid, with no evidence of continuity from the primary thyroid tumor; Ref.: reference. *Based on AJCC/International Union against Cancer (AJCC/UICC) classification system [11].