Interobserver and intraobserver reproducibility in the histopathology of follicular thyroid carcinoma

An update on molecular biology of thyroid cancers

“…Furthermore, reliable prognostic markers are still insufficient. The most prominent interobserver variability has been reported in follicular-patterned tumors [175][176][177][178]. Final agreement for reported criteria such as capsular or vascular invasion and differential diagnosis of follicular adenoma and carcinoma is very low (27,20 and 37%, respectively) [177].…”

“…Final agreement for reported criteria such as capsular or vascular invasion and differential diagnosis of follicular adenoma and carcinoma is very low (27,20 and 37%, respectively) [177]. Some disagreements between pathologists have also been reported for classification of histological variants of PTC and FNAB [175][176][177][178].…”

Microarray analysis refines classification of non-medullary thyroid tumours of uncertain malignancy

“…However, for decades, conventional histology failed to classify some encapsulated follicular thyroid tumours as benign or malignant because these lesions share overlapping histological features. This already known difficulty is underscored by recent substantial interobserver variability (Hirokawa et al, 2002;Franc et al, 2003;Lloyd et al, 2004), either in the pathological assessment of thyroid nodules or in the identification of underlying diagnosis criteria, such as papillary nuclear features, vascular and/or capsular invasion. These difficulties are especially relevant in encapsulated differentiated thyroid carcinomas for their belonging to the encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (FVPTC) or the minimally invasive FTC group, and for their ability to harbour predominant oncocytic features.…”

Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinase-2, but not Caspase-3, Facilitates Distinction between Benign and Malignant Thyroid Follicular Neoplasms

“…Furthermore, such methods would be of great value in cases of minimally invasive (or encapsulated) follicular carcinoma, where discrimination from adenoma based on vascular or capsular invasion suffers inter-observer variation among pathologists (Hirokava et al, 2002;France et al, 2003) and also, in pathology specimens in which capsular detachment, tissue fragmentation or distortion, or subtleness of vascular or capsular invasion makes the distinction between carcinoma and adenoma difficult.…”