An International Multi-Institutional Validation of Age 55 Years as a Cutoff for Risk Stratification in the AJCC/UICC Staging System for Well-Differentiated Thyroid Cancer

Abstract

A change in the cutoff age in the current AJCC/UICC staging system from 45 years to 55 years would lead to a downstaging of 12% of patients, and would improve the statistical validity of the model. Such a change would be clinically relevant for thousands of patients worldwide by preventing overstaging of patients with low-risk disease while providing a more realistic estimate of prognosis for those who remain high risk.