Clinical assessment of T2 papillary thyroid carcinoma: a retrospective study conducted at a single tertiary institution

The extent of surgery among patients with T2 papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) remains controversial. Thus, we herein aimed to evaluate the risk factors for recurrence, particularly based on the extent of surgery, among patients with T2 PTC at a single tertiary institution. We assessed 251 patients who underwent thyroid surgery for T2 PTC from January 2009 to December 2014 at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital (Seoul, Korea). The mean follow-up duration was 100.7 months. Eleven (4.4%) patients had recurrence. The recurrence rates did not significantly differ in terms of the extent of surgery (p = 0.868). Patients with a high lymph node ratio (LNR) had a significantly higher recurrence rate than those with a low LNR (p < 0.001). According to a recurrence pattern analysis, five of six patients in the lobectomy group had recurrence in the ipsilateral lateral compartment. A multivariate analysis revealed that a high LNR was a significant risk factor for recurrence (hazard ratio: 11.025, p = 0.002). Our results suggest that patients without clinical evidence of any lymph node metastases and those with limited lesions in the thyroid gland can undergo lobectomy and LNR can serve as an independent risk factor for predicting recurrence in T2 PTC.