Evaluation of Distant Metastasis in Treated Thyroid Cancers: Study of Radioiodine Scans in a Tertiary Care Center

The presence of distant metastases is one of the most important predictive factors of poor outcomes in thyroid cancer patients. Apart from distant metastasis, sex, age, histopathological subtypes, and completeness of surgical resection are the other prognostic indicators of survival. Our attempt in this study is to analyze the presence of distant metastasis in operated patients of thyroid malignancy and evaluate these prognostic indicators in the metastatic subgroup. Objective: The objective of this study was to retrospectively analyze the presence and extent of distant metastasis among treated thyroid cancer patients. Materials and Methods: The postoperative radioiodine scan reports of the patients who presented to Health Care Global Enterprises Ltd., Bengaluru over a period of 8 years (January 2008 to December 2015) were analyzed. Results: Sixty-six patients out of the 499 patients evaluated (13.22%) had distant metastasis. Most of the patients with distant metastasis were females, aged 45 years and above and had papillary carcinoma of thyroid. Percentage of skeletal and pulmonary metastasis was almost equal in the study group. Conclusion: The patterns of distant metastasis were similar to the trends in literature, except for increased incidence of skeletal metastasis, more so in a follicular subtype of papillary carcinomas.