Table 1.

The basic characteristics of the specimens

PTC samples (n = 39)	Male/Female (n)	Lobe involvement one/both (n)	Average tumor diameter (mm)	Lymph node metastasis (n)
Classical PTC (n = 24)	7/17	18/6	14.8	9/24
Follicular variant (n = 4)	1/3	4/0	18.8	1/4
Encapsulated variant (n = 3)	0/3	1/2	14.3	0/3
Oncocytic variant (n = 4)	0/4	4/0	16.3	3/4
Multifocal variant (n = 1)	0/1	0/1	N/A	0/1
Microcarcinoma (n = 3)	0/3	3/0	1.3	0/3

The 39 PTC and 28 tumor-free thyroid tissues were collected from 40 patients. More than a half of the thyroid samples categorized as classical PTC (n = 24) and the remaining 15 specimens belonged to other histological variants