The American Joint Committee on Cancer/Union for International Cancer Control (AJCC/UICC) staging classification of thyroid cancer can predict death but cannot determine the type and frequency of follow-up testing. Risk stratification is a concept proposed by the American Thyroid Association that uses additional prognostic factors that are not included in the AJCC/UICC classification, such as number or size of metastatic lymph nodes, genetic mutations, and vascular invasion in follicular cancer, to further refine the prognosis of thyroid cancer. The risk of recurrence was categorized as low, intermediate, and high risk, and the need for total thyroidectomy, radioiodine therapy, or thyroid-stimulating hormone suppression was determined depending on each risk level. This approach has been accepted worldwide, and the previous recommendations of the Korean Thyroid Association followed a similar line of thinking but these have been modified in the revised 2024 guidelines.For the revised initial risk stratification, after careful review of the results of the recent meta-analyses and large observational studies and after a multidisciplinary meeting, four major changes were made: 1) thyroid cancer was reclassified according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 2022 tumor classification system; 2) recurrence risk was stratified by combining encapsulated follicular variant papillary thyroid cancer, follicular thyroid cancer, and oncocytic thyroid cancer, which have similar recurrence risk and associated factors, into follicular-patterned tumor; 3) low-risk groups were defined as those with a known recurrence rate of ≤5%, high-risk groups were upgraded to those with a known recurrence rate of ≥30%, and intermediate-risk groups were those with a recurrence risk of 5–30%; and 4) the intermediate risk group had the recurrence rate presented according to various clinicopathological factors, mainly based on reports from Korea. Thus, it is recommended to evaluate the initial risk group by predicting the recurrence rate by combining each clinical factor in individual patients, rather than applying the recurrence rate caused by single risk factor.

Only a small percentage of patients (2-5%) with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) exhibit distant metastasis at the initial diagnosis or during the disease course. The most common metastatic sites of DTC are the lungs, followed by the bones. Radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy is considered the primary treatment for RAI-avid distant metastatic DTC. Depending on the characteristics of metastatic lesions, local treatment such as surgical resection, radiofrequency ablation, and external beam radiation therapy may be considered for some patients with metastatic DTC. Slowly growing and asymptomatic metastases can be monitored with follow-up while receiving thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression therapy. In patients with a limited number of lung metastases and good performance status, surgical removal of the metastatic lesions may be considered. Systemic therapy should be considered for patients with progressive RAI refractory DTC. In this clinical guideline, we aim to outline the treatment principles for patients with lung, bone, and brain metastases of DTC.

Differentiated thyroid cancer demonstrates a wide range of clinical presentations, from very indolent cases to those with an aggressive prognosis. Therefore, diagnosing and treating each cancer appropriately based on its risk status is important. The Korean Thyroid Association (KTA) has provided and amended the clinical guidelines for thyroid cancer management since 2007. The main changes in this revised 2024 guideline include 1) individualization of surgical extent according to pathological tests and clinical findings, 2) application of active surveillance in low-risk papillary thyroid microcarcinoma, 3) indications for minimally invasive surgery, 4) adoption of World Health Organization pathological diagnostic criteria and definition of terminology in Korean, 5) update on literature evidence of recurrence risk for initial risk stratification, 6) addition of the role of molecular testing, 7) addition of definition of initial risk stratification and targeting thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) concentrations according to ongoing risk stratification (ORS), 8) addition of treatment of perioperative hypoparathyroidism, 9) update on systemic chemotherapy, and 10) addition of treatment for pediatric patients with thyroid cancer.

Background/Aims: This study evaluated the long-term cardiovascular complications among Korean patients with hypertension and compared them with that of controls without hypertension. Methods: The Korean Hypertension Cohort (KHC) enrolled 11,043 patients with hypertension and followed them for more than 10 years. Age- and sex-matched controls without hypertension were enrolled at a 1:10 ratio. We compared the incidence of cardiovascular events and death among patients and controls without hypertension. Results: The mean age was 59 years, and 34.8% and 16.5% of the patients belonged to the high and moderate cardiovascular risk groups, respectively. During the 10-year follow-up, 1,591 cardiovascular events (14.4%) with 588 deaths (5.3%) occurred among patients with hypertension and 7,635 cardiovascular events (6.9%) with 4,826 deaths (4.4%) occurred among controls. Even the low-risk population with hypertension showed a higher cardiovascular event rate than the population without hypertension. Although blood pressure measurements in the clinic showed remarkable inaccuracy compared with those measured in the national health examinations, systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 150 mmHg was significantly associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events. Conclusions This long-term follow-up study confirmed the cardiovascular event rates among Korean hypertensive patients were substantial, reaching 15% in 10 years. SBP levels ≥ 150 mmHg were highly associated with occurrence of cardiovascular event rates.

Thyroid hormone plays an important role in the process of implantation of a fertilized egg in the endometrium, as well as in the division and development of the fertilized egg. In addition, maternal thyroid hormone is essential for the formation and development of the fetal brain, nervous system, and bones. Therefore, when maternal thyroid hormone is insufficient, complications such as miscarriage, stillbirth, low birth weight and preeclampsia increase. Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy were established and published by the American Endocrine Society, the American Thyroid Association, and the European Thyroid Society. The Korean Thyroid Society also published recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease during pregnancy and postpartum in 2014. However, since the revised guidelines of the American Thyroid Association were published in 2017, many studies, including large-scale randomized controlled trials, have been published in relation to thyroid and pregnancy, and the need to revise the existing recommendations has emerged in Korea.The main revisions of this recommendation are changes in the normal range of TSH during pregnancy, detailed description of treatment policies according to pregnant women’s autoantibodies and thyroid function status. Also, a description of the effect of thyroid autoantibodies on assisted reproductive procedures has been added.

Rituximab is a monoclonal antibody used for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Infusion-related hypersensitivity reactions to rituximab is well known, and delayed hypersensitivity reactions to rituximab are also reported. Desensitization is commonly used to prevent immediate hypersensitivity reactions, but recently there have been cases of successful desensitization therapy for delayed hypersensitivity reactions. A 66-year-old patient who underwent rituximab treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma showed repeated rituximab-induced delayed hypersensitivity reactions with whole body rashes. Intravenous rapid desensitization was performed by using a 1-bottle, 11-step protocol for 6 cycles and thereafter hypersensitivity reaction did not recur. We herein reported a case of delayed hypersensitivity reaction caused by rituximab, which was successfully desensitized using our 11-step protocol.
Aged ; B-Lymphocytes ; Desensitization, Immunologic ; Exanthema ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Hypersensitivity, Delayed ; Hypersensitivity, Immediate ; Lymphoma, B-Cell ; Rituximab

PURPOSE: With the emergence of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, profiling a wide range of genomic alterations has become a possibility resulting in improved implementation of targeted cancer therapy. In Asian populations, the prevalence and spectrum of clinically actionable genetic alterations has not yet been determined because of a lack of studies examining high-throughput cancer genomic data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To address this issue, 1,071 tumor samples were collected from five major cancer institutes in Korea and analyzed using targeted NGS at a centralized laboratory. Samples were either fresh frozen or formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) and the quality and yield of extracted genomic DNA was assessed. In order to estimate the effect of sample condition on the quality of sequencing results, tissue preparation method, specimen type (resected or biopsied) and tissue storage time were compared. RESULTS: We detected 7,360 non-synonymous point mutations, 1,164 small insertions and deletions, 3,173 copy number alterations, and 462 structural variants. Fifty-four percent of tumors had one or more clinically relevant genetic mutation. The distribution of actionable variants was variable among different genes. Fresh frozen tissues, surgically resected specimens, and recently obtained specimens generated superior sequencing results over FFPE tissues, biopsied specimens, and tissues with long storage duration. CONCLUSION: In order to overcome, challenges involved in bringing NGS testing into routine clinical use, a centralized laboratory model was designed that could improve the NGS workflows, provide appropriate turnaround times and control costs with goal of enabling precision medicine.
Academies and Institutes ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; DNA ; Humans ; Korea ; Methods ; Paraffin ; Point Mutation ; Precision Medicine ; Prevalence

PURPOSE: Lung cancers presenting as subsolid nodule commonly have peripheral location, making the cancer-pleura relationship noteworthy. We aimed to evaluate the effect of pleural attachment and/or indentation on visceral pleural invasion (VPI) and recurrence-free survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients who underwent curative resection of lung cancer as subsolid nodules from April 2007 to January 2016 were retrospectively evaluated. They were divided into four groups according to their relationship with the pleura. Clinical, radiographical, and pathological findings were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 404 patients with malignant subsolid nodule, 120 (29.7%) had neither pleural attachment nor indentation, 26 (6.4%) had attachment only, 117 (29.0%) had indentation only, and 141 (34.9%) had both. VPI was observed in nodules of 36 patients (8.9%), but absent in nonsolid nodules and in those without pleural attachment and/or indentation. Compared to subsolid nodules with concurrent pleural attachment and indentation, those with attachment only (odds ratio, 0.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.02 to 0.98) and indentation only (odds ratio, 0.10; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.31) revealed lower odds of VPI. On subgroup analysis, the size of the solid portion was associated with VPI among those with pleural attachment and indentation (p=0.021). Such high-risk features for VPI were associated with earlier lung cancer recurrence (adjusted hazard ratio, 3.31; 95% CI, 1.58 to 6.91). CONCLUSION: Concurrent pleural attachment and indentation are risk factors for VPI, and the odds increase with larger solid portion in subsolid nodules. Considering the risk of recurrence, early surgical resection could be encouraged in these patients.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; Lung ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Pleura ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

PURPOSE: In this retrospective study, we compared the incidence of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis or dural metastasis (LMCDM) in patients who received whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT), partial radiotherapy (PRT), or no radiotherapy (RT) following resection of brain metastases from breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients with breast cancer underwent surgical resection for newly diagnosed brain metastases in two institutions between March 2001 and March 2015. Among these, 34 received postoperative WBRT (n=24) or PRT (n=10) and 17 did not. RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 12.4 months (range, 2.3 to 83.6 months), 22/51 patients developed LMCDM at a median of 8.6 months (range, 4.8 to 51.2 months) after surgery. The 18-months LMCDM-free survival (LMCDM-FS) rates were 77.5%, 30.0%, and 13.6%, in the WBRT, PRT, and no RT groups, respectively (p=0.013). The presence of a tumor adjacent to cerebrospinal fluid flow and no systemic treatment after treatment for brain metastases were also associated with poor LMCDM-FS rate. Multivariate analysis showed that WBRT compared to PRT (p=0.009) and systemic treatment (p < 0.001) were independently associated with reduced incidence of LMCDM. CONCLUSION: WBRT improved LMCDM-FS rate after resection of brain metastases compared to PRT in breast cancer patients.
Brain* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Meningeal Carcinomatosis* ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Radiotherapy* ; Retrospective Studies

PURPOSE: In this retrospective study, we compared the incidence of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis or dural metastasis (LMCDM) in patients who received whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT), partial radiotherapy (PRT), or no radiotherapy (RT) following resection of brain metastases from breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-one patients with breast cancer underwent surgical resection for newly diagnosed brain metastases in two institutions between March 2001 and March 2015. Among these, 34 received postoperative WBRT (n=24) or PRT (n=10) and 17 did not. RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 12.4 months (range, 2.3 to 83.6 months), 22/51 patients developed LMCDM at a median of 8.6 months (range, 4.8 to 51.2 months) after surgery. The 18-months LMCDM-free survival (LMCDM-FS) rates were 77.5%, 30.0%, and 13.6%, in the WBRT, PRT, and no RT groups, respectively (p=0.013). The presence of a tumor adjacent to cerebrospinal fluid flow and no systemic treatment after treatment for brain metastases were also associated with poor LMCDM-FS rate. Multivariate analysis showed that WBRT compared to PRT (p=0.009) and systemic treatment (p < 0.001) were independently associated with reduced incidence of LMCDM. CONCLUSION: WBRT improved LMCDM-FS rate after resection of brain metastases compared to PRT in breast cancer patients.
Brain* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cerebrospinal Fluid ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Meningeal Carcinomatosis* ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Radiotherapy* ; Retrospective Studies