The prevalence of thyroid cancer in pregnant women is unknown; however, given that thyroid cancer commonly develops in women, especially young women of childbearing age, new cases are often diagnosed during pregnancy. This recommendation summarizes the follow-up and treatment when thyroid cancer is diagnosed during pregnancy and when a woman with thyroid cancer becomes pregnant. If diagnosed in the first trimester, surgery should be postponed until after delivery, and the patient should be monitored with ultrasound. If follow-up before 24–26 weeks of gestation shows that thyroid cancer has progressed, surgery should be considered. If it has not progressed at 24–26 weeks of gestation or if papillary thyroid cancer is diagnosed after 20 weeks of pregnancy, surgery should be considered after delivery.

Surgical resection is typically the primary treatment for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), followed by radioactive iodine (RAI) and thyroid-stimulating hormone suppression therapies based on the cancer stage and risk of recurrence. Nevertheless, further treatment may be necessary for patients exhibiting persistent disease following RAI therapy, residual disease refractory to RAI, or unresectable locoregional lesions. This guideline discusses the role of external beam radiotherapy and chemotherapy following surgical resection in patients with DTC. External beam radiotherapy is ineffective if DTC has been entirely excised (Grade 2). Adjuvant external beam radiotherapy may be optionally performed in patients with incomplete surgical resection or frequently recurrent disease (Grade 2). In patients at high risk of recurrence following surgery and RAI therapy, adjuvant external beam radiotherapy may be optionally considered (Grade 3). However, external beam radiotherapy may increase the risk of serious adverse events after tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. Therefore, careful consideration is needed when prescribing external beam radiotherapy for patients planning to undergo tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. There is no evidence supporting the benefits of the routine use of adjuvant chemotherapy for DTC treatment (Grade 2).

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.

The primary treatment for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) with distant metastasis is high-dose radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy, which can have various effects depending on the iodine uptake of thyroid cancer cells. The iodine uptake of metastatic lesions decreases over time, and approximately 40-70% of patients eventually develop RAI refractory disease. Although the prognosis of patients with RAI refractory DTC is very poor, clinical outcomes vary depending on the location and progression of metastatic lesions. Therefore, it is crucial to determine which patients should receive active systemic therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and how to apply local treatment before or during systemic therapy. This guideline covers the definition, treatment principles, systemic anticancer agents, and complications of progressive RAI-refractory DTC. RAI refractory DTC is defined as (1) the absence of RAI uptake on whole body scan, (2) presence of RAI uptake in some lesions but not in others, or (3) disease progression despite RAI uptake. Treatment options for RAI refractory DTC include surgery, external beam radiation therapy, locoregional therapies such as high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation, and systemic anticancer therapy.In patients with minimal symptoms and progression, active surveillance without specific treatment may be considered. Systemic treatment should be considered for patients with multiple progressive lesions by RECIST criteria. Furthermore, testing for cancer gene mutations, including BRAF, NTRK, and RET genes, is recommended for personalized therapy. Systemic therapy should be decided based on shared decision-making between the patient and specialist, considering anticipated benefits and risks. Regular assessment of treatment responses and evaluation of adverse events is essential, with dose adjustment based on these assessments. The optimal time of use, clinical approaches for the prevention and control of adverse events, and individualized treatment approaches based on patient characteristics will be of great help in the treatment of patients with RAI-refractory 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: Bladder cancer is characterized by frequent mutations, which provide potential therapeutic targets for most patients. The effectiveness of emerging personalized therapies depends on an accurate molecular diagnosis, for which the accurate estimation of the neoplastic cell percentage (NCP) is a crucial initial step. However, the established method for determining the NCP, manual counting by a pathologist, is time-consuming and not easily executable. Methods: To address this, artificial intelligence (AI) models were developed to estimate the NCP using nine convolutional neural networks and the scanned images of 39 cases of urinary tract cancer. The performance of the AI models was compared to that of six pathologists for 119 cases in the validation cohort. The ground truth value was obtained through multiplexed immunofluorescence. The AI model was then applied to 41 cases in the application cohort that underwent next-generation sequencing testing, and its impact on the copy number variation (CNV) was analyzed. Results: Each AI model demonstrated high reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranging from 0.82 to 0.88. These values were comparable or better to those of pathologists, whose ICCs ranged from 0.78 to 0.91 in urothelial carcinoma cases, both with and without divergent differentiation/ subtypes. After applying AI-driven NCP, 190 CNV (24.2%) were reclassified with 66 (8.4%) and 78 (9.9%) moved to amplification and loss, respectively, from neutral/minor CNV. The neutral/minor CNV proportion decreased by 6%. Conclusions These results suggest that AI models could assist human pathologists in repetitive and cumbersome NCP calculations.

Background/Aims: The study investigated the incidence of thromboembolic events (TEE) in head and neck (H&N) cancer patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with cisplatin, and analyzed the factors affecting TEE occurrence Methods: Two hundred and fifty-seven patients who started CCRT with cisplatin for H&N cancer from January 2005 to December 2019 were analyzed. Results: TEE occurred in five patients, an incidence rate of 1.9%. The 2-, 4-, and 6-month cumulative incidences of TEE were 0.8%, 1.6%, and 1.9%, respectively. Khorana score was the only factor associated with TEE occurrence (p = 0.010). Conclusions The incidence of TEE in H&N cancer patients who underwent CCRT with cisplatin was relatively low when compared to other types of cancer. However, patients with a high Khorana score require more careful surveillance for possible TEE occurrence.

Background/Aims: Both hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) and liver stiffness (LS) are useful tools for predicting mortality in patients with cirrhosis. We investigated the combined effect of HVPG and LS on long-term mortality in patients with cirrhosis. Methods: We retrospectively collected data from 103 patients with cirrhosis, whose HVPG and LS were measured between November 2009 and September 2013. The patients were divided into four groups according to the results of the HVPG and LS measurements. Long-term mortality and the risk factors for mortality were analyzed. Results: Of the 103 patients, 35 were in group 1 (low HVPG and low LS), 16 in group 2 (high HVPG and low LS), 24 in group 3 (low HVPG and high LS), and 28 in group 4 (high HVPG and high LS). Over a median follow-up of 47.3 months, 18 patients died. The mortality rate of patients in group 4 was significantly higher than in the other three groups (vs. group 1, p = 0.005; vs. group 2, p = 0.049; vs. group 3, p = 0.004), but there were no significant differences in survival between groups 1, 2, and 3. In multivariable analyses, both HVPG and LS were identified as independent risk factors for mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.127, p = 0.018; and HR, 1.062, p = 0.009, respectively). Conclusions In patients with cirrhosis, those with concurrent elevation of HVPG and LS had the highest long-term mortality rates. However, when either HVPG or LS alone was elevated, mortality did not increase significantly.

PURPOSE: The volume of thyroid cancer screening and subsequent thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) have rapidly increased in South Korea. We analyzed the thyroid cancer diagnoses/thyroid FNA ratio according to the annual number of FNA to evaluate changes in the diagnosticefficiency of FNA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study. The overall thyroid cancer diagnoses/thyroid FNA ratio and annual incremental thyroid cancer diagnoses/incremental thyroid FNA ratio were indirectly calculated using data obtained from the Korea Central Cancer Registry database and the Korean National Health Insurance Service claims database from 2004 to 2012. Pearson correlation analyses were performed to evaluate the strength of linear associations between variables. RESULTS: The number of thyroid FNA increased from 28,596 to 177,805 (6.2-fold increase) from 2004 to 2012. The overall thyroid cancer diagnoses/thyroid FNA ratio decreased from 36.5% in 2004 to 25.1% in 2012 and was negatively correlated to the number of FNA (R=‒0.977, p < 0.001). The annual incremental thyroid cancer diagnoses/incremental thyroid FNA ratios (range, 15.3% to 30.7%) were always lower than the overall thyroid cancer diagnoses/thyroid FNA ratio in each year and also worsened according to the increase in the number of FNA (R=‒0.853, p=0.007). CONCLUSION: The diagnostic performance of both overall and annual incremental thyroid FNA worsened, whereas the number of thyroid FNA procedures increased. More sophisticated indications for FNA are required to improve its diagnostic efficiency, considering the increased burden of screening-detected thyroid nodules.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Cohort Studies ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; National Health Programs ; Retrospective Studies ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Thyroid Nodule