Comparison of pediatric and adult medullary thyroid carcinoma based on SEER program

To compare the clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes of children and adult diagnosed with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). MTC patients were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database from 1998 to 2016, followed by stratification into pediatric (< 20 years) or adult (≥ 20 years) groups. In total, 2,197 patients (110 pediatric and 2087 adult) with MTC were identified. Pediatric patients were more likely to have localized stage (70.0% vs. 51.6%), negative regional nodes (48.2% vs. 30.8%) and receive total/subtotal thyroidectomy surgery (97.3% vs. 85.3%). Moreover, CSS and OS rates were significantly higher in pediatric patients (both P < 0.001). Multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed that adult patients were significantly correlated with worse CSS and OS rates [(CSS: HR 11.60, 95% CI 1.62–83.02, P = 0.015); (OS: HR 5.63, 95% CI 2.08–15.25, P = 0.001)]. Further stratified analysis indicated that pediatric group might have significant better CSS and OS for patients with more advanced stage. Patients in the pediatric group were more likely to have earlier stage. Moreover, the prognosis of pediatric MTC patients was significantly better than that in adult patients.