Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism (Jul 2023)

Risk of malignancy and diagnostic accuracy of fine-needle aspiration biopsy in thyroid nodules with diameters greater than 4 centimeters

  • Rafaela N. Barcelos,
  • Cléber P. Camacho,
  • Maria da Conceição de O. C. Mamone,
  • Elza S. Ikejiri,
  • Felipe A. B. Vanderlei,
  • Ji H. Yang,
  • Rosália P. Padovani,
  • Leandro A. L. Martins,
  • Rosa Paula M. Biscolla,
  • Danielle Macellaro,
  • Susan C. Lindsey,
  • Rui M. B. Maciel,
  • João Roberto M. Martins

DOI
https://doi.org/10.20945/2359-3997000000644
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 67, no. 6

Abstract

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ABSTRACT Objective: The risk of malignancy and diagnostic accuracy of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of thyroid nodules (TN) with diameters ≥ 3-4 cm remains controversial. However, some groups have indicated surgical treatment in these patients regardless of the FNAB results. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the FNAB in systematically resected ≥4 cm TN and if the risk of malignancy is higher in these patients. Subjects and methods: We retrospectively evaluated 138 patients (142 nodules) with TN with diameters ≥4 cm who underwent thyroidectomy. Results: The FNAB results were nondiagnostic/unsatisfactory (ND/UNS) in 2.1% of the cases and benign in 51.4%. They indicated atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance (AUS/FLUS) in 23.9% of cases, follicular neoplasia/suspicious for a follicular neoplasm (FN/SFN) in 9.2%, suspicion of malignancy (SUS) in 8.5%, and malignant in 4.9%. The histopathological analysis after thyroidectomy revealed a thyroid cancer rate of 100% in the FNABs classified as malignant, 33.3% in SUS cases, 7.7% in FN/SFN, 17.6% in AUS/FLUS, and 4.1% in benign FNABs. None of the ND/UNS FNABs were malignant. The global malignancy diagnosis was 14.8% (n = 21). However, the rate of false negatives for FNAB was low (4.1%). Conclusion: We showed that the risk of malignancy in nodules with diameters ≥4 cm was higher compared to the risk of thyroid cancer in TN in general. However, we found a low rate of false-negative cytological results; therefore, our data do not justify the orientation of routine resection for these larger nodules.

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