Diffuse sclerosing variant of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. Clinical importance, surgical treatment, and follow-up study.

A diffuse sclerosing variant is not very rare among papillary carcinomas of the thyroid when the patients are female and younger than 30 years of age. The variant is characterized by diffuse involvement of one or both thyroid lobes, with dense sclerosis, patchy lymphocytic infiltration, and abundant psammoma bodies. Controversy still exists concerning its prognosis. We reviewed our experience with 14 patients treated between 1958 and 1988. All patients were young females, their age being from 10 to 28 years with a mean of 19.6. Hashimoto's thyroiditis had been suspected in nine patients before they came to our clinic. Nowadays the diagnosis of this cancer is possible when we have this entity in mind and detect abundant psammoma bodies either by ultrasonography or by soft-tissue roentgenography of the neck. Total thyroidectomy with modified neck dissection was carried out in eight patients, subtotal thyroidectomy with neck dissection in five, and lobectomy with neck dissection in one. All of them are alive and well without distant metastasis at a mean follow-up of 16 years. Because most of the patients with this variant of papillary carcinoma are young women and the prognosis is favorable, a complete resection without causing later recurrence, but also cosmetic and complication-free surgery, should be considered.