Follicular thyroid carcinoma: Histology and prognosis

Abstract

In the current retrospective investigation, the authors demonstrate that patients with minimally invasive FTC (capsular invasion only) had a slightly better survival rate at 5 years (98%) compared with patients who had angioinvasion with or without capsular invasion (80%) and had better survival compared with patients who had widely invasive FTC (38%). Other (but not all) reports in the literature support the findings that FTC with angioinvasion is more aggressive than FTC with only capsular invasion yet is less aggressive than widely invasive FTC. The authors conclude that FTC no longer should be classified as either minimally invasive or widely invasive; rather, they recommend classifying FTC as minimally invasive, moderately invasive, or widely invasive, because prognosis varies according to these groupings.