Introduction: Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid is the commonest cancer in the thyroid with an increasing incidence over the past few decades. A subset of papillary carcinomas was re-classified into "Non-invasive Follicular Thyroid Neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features" (NIFTP) in late 2017, due to the excellent prognosis they exhibit. Identification of NIFTP is important because surgical management and follow up is similar to follicular adenoma, thus reducing the psychological burden to patient, eliminating unnecessary exposure to radiation and economic burden to the society. This study intended to assess the prevalence and the inter-observer consistency in identifying NIFTP in the study sample.Methods: This retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study included all thyroid specimens received at our department in 2017. Thyroid neoplasms with a potential for reclassification to NIFTP were reassessed according the WHO criteria by two investigators who were blinded to the previous and each other's diagnoses.Results: Out of the 256 thyroid specimens received, 74/256 (28.90%) considered to have potential to be reclassified as NIFTP which included 34 cancers. Only 5/74 (6.75%) satisfied the criteria for NIFTP. Three NIFTPs had been reported as papillary microcarcinoma and the other two as follicular variant of papillary carcinoma. Inter-observer consistency in re-classifying the 74 tumours was 94.6%, with a 100% consistency in diagnosing NIFTP. Following re-classification, the proportion of cancers in the study sample reduced to 56/256 (21.87%) from 61/256 (23.82%). The prevalence of NIFTP in the study sample was 1.95% (5/256). Conclusions:The prevalence of NIFTP in the study sample is comparable to the Asian population. The current study reports a high inter-observer consistency in recognizing NIFTP among potential lesions, most likely due to the strict adherence to WHO criteria.
Introduction: Although Estrogen Receptor (ER) positivity is a good prognostic factor in breast carcinoma (BC), a subset of patients experiences poor disease-free survival (DFS). Mutation in phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) is identified as a poor prognostic feature in BC. This study was designed to find out the impact of lost or poor PTEN expression on ER positive BC, in terms of the recognized prognostic factors and survival outcome to find out its association with tamoxifen resistance.Methods: This was a cross sectional study with a follow up component. BC tissue blocks submitted to our unit from 2006 to 2012 were selected. From the laboratory data, patients who had ER positive BC, undergone mastectomy, treated with tamoxifen were selected. All clinicopathological parameters, DFS and overall survival (OS) were analysed against lost or poor PTEN expression. Clinicopathological features were compared using Chi-square test. Kaplan-Meier model with log-rank test was used for the survival analysis.Results: A total of 130 BC patients satisfied the inclusion criteria. PTEN expression was lost or poor in 82.3% (n=107) patients. PTEN expression had a positive association with the level of ER expression (p=0.011) and a negative association with Nottingham prognostic index (NPI) (p=0.045) and pathological stage (p<0.048). Only 12.1% (n=16) patients had recurrences and 7.69% (n=10) had died over a period of 51 months of mean follow up. There was no significant association between PTEN expression and survival.Conclusions: This study showed that there is a statistically significant association between lost or poor PTEN expression and low ER expression, high NPI and stage 3 in ER positive BC. Further studies including larger study sample with a longer follow up are recommended to find out the association of PTEN with the survival in ER positive BC treated with tamoxifen.
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