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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Sep 15.
Published in final edited form as: N Engl J Med. 2016 Sep 15;375(11):1054–1067. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1501993

Figure 1. Pathologic Spectrum of Thyroid Cancers.

Figure 1

Panel A shows the relative incidence of the main types of thyroid cancer in the United States, and Panel B the relative frequency of pathologic variants of papillary thyroid carcinoma, with their corresponding main driver mutations shown in parentheses (the symbol > indicates more frequent than). RTK denotes receptor tyrosine kinase. Panel C shows the encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma without invasion, which until recently represented 17% of all papillary thyroid carcinomas. This cancer has recently been reclassified as a neoplasm of low malignant potential and is now termed “noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary−like nuclear features” (NIFT−P). This change will result in a corresponding reduction in the number of patients who are considered to have thyroid cancer. The hematoxylin and eosin–stained section in the inset shows the characteristic histologic appearance of an NIFT−P. The encapsulated tumor has a follicular growth pattern and papillary nuclear features, low mitotic rate, and absence of necrosis and capsular or vascular invasion.