https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3450-2928
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Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the outcomes of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) adjacent to the trachea and compare them with those of PTMC distant from the trachea.
Methods
Patients who received RFA for solitary low-risk PTMC between June 2014 and July 2020 were reviewed and classified into adjacent and distant groups. To balance between-group confounders, the propensity score matching approach was employed. Volume, volume reduction ratio (VRR), tumor disappearance, complications, and disease progression were assessed and compared between the groups. Furthermore, factors affecting disease progression were evaluated.
Results
A total of 122 and 470 patients were included in the adjacent and distant groups, respectively. Overall VRR was 99.5% ± 3.1 and cumulative tumor disappearance rate was 99.4% after a mean follow-up time of 40.1 months ± 16.2. Overall disease progression and complications incidence were 3.7% and 1.0%, respectively. No substantial differences were observed between the two groups in the latest volume (0.8 mm3 ± 4.1 vs. 0.9 mm3 ± 4.2, p = .77), VRR (99.7% ± 1.6 vs. 99.5% ± 2.7, p = .75), cumulative tumor disappearance rate (92.6% vs. 94.2%, p = .58), and incidence of disease progression (4.1% vs. 4.5%, p = .70) and complication (1.7% vs. 0.8%, p = .86) after 1:2 matching. Additionally, tracheal adjacency exhibited no association with disease progression in multivariate Cox regression analysis (p = .73).
Conclusion
For eligible patients with PTMC located adjacent to or distant from the trachea, RFA may offer a safe and effective alternative treatment method.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the patients who participated in this study. The paper has been posted in a repository (DOI:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2937812/v1).
Author contributions
Haoyu Jing: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft and Review & Editing; Lin Yan: Methodology, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing; Jing Xiao: Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing; Xinyang Li: Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing; Bo Jiang: Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing; Zhen Yang: Data Curation, Writing – Review & Editing; Yingying Li, Writing – Review & Editing; Bin Sun, Writing – Review & Editing; Mingbo Zhang: Conceptualization, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Project Administration; Yukun Luo: Conceptualization, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Project Administration.
Ethics statement
This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of China PLA General Hospital (Number: S2019-211-01).
Patient consent
Written informed consent for study inclusion was waived because of the retrospective nature, and written informed consent for ablation treatment was obtained.
Statement
The article currently submitted to your journal is a revised version based on the previous paper submitted to the repository (DOI:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2937812/v1). We have added the author (B S) to the submission to IJH because the author has contributed to the revisions (including updating the follow-up time of enrolled patients and editing the paper with other authors) for the current paper.
Disclosure statement
The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Data availability statement
The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Clinical trial registration
This study has been registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000039563).