Non-papillary thyroid carcinoma diagnoses in The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology categories V and VI: An institutional experience

Abstract

Background: The non-papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) subgroups of The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (TBSRTC) categories V (Suspicious for malignancy) and VI (Malignant) are rare, and specific tumor typing is difficult. We aimed to analyze histologic outcomes and to investigate the points of caution.

Methods: We reviewed the electronic database and identified 12,215 cases of thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology between 2013 and 2022. In total, 2783 patients were diagnosed with TBSRTC V or VI. Of these, 51 patients with non-PTC diagnosis were identified. Histological outcomes were analyzed with the cytologic findings.

Results: The subgroups of non-PTC diagnoses in TBSRTC category V or VI consisted of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) (13/51, 25.5 %), anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (3/51, 5.9 %), lymphoma (2/51, 3.9 %), metastatic tumor (4/51, 7.8 %), and malignant, not otherwise specified (NOS) (29/51, 56.9 %). The concordance rate of the histological outcomes was 30 % (12/40), predominantly comprising MTC cases. The obscuring factors for specific tumor typing in the suspicious for malignancy/malignant NOS cytology diagnosis group was mixed pattern of well differentiated thyroid carcinoma and less differentiated carcinoma cells (9/24, 37.5 %), low cellularity (7/24, 29.2 %) and a history of non-thyroid organ malignancy (6/24, 25 %). The less differentiated carcinoma component in mixed pattern consisted of 2 poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas, 2 anaplastic thyroid carcinomas, 4 high-grade PTCs and 1 high-grade MTC.

Conclusion: The high-grade feature of PTC or MTC cytology is a noteworthy obscuring factor in specific tumor typing of non-PTC cytology diagnosis.