KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the ultrasound features associated with refractory/local relapse events in patients with PTL.
- Researchers noticed that Ultrasound reveals predictive markers for R/R events in patients with PTL.
Primary thyroid lymphoma (PTL) is a rare malignancy, and ultrasound is integral for diagnosis and surveillance. However, identifying predictors for refractory/relapse (R/R) events remains elusive.
Jiang Ji and the team aimed to bridge this gap by investigating ultrasound features associated with such events.
They performed an inclusive analysis encompassing newly diagnosed PTL patients from January 2008 to September 2022. Patients who underwent standard first-line (1L) treatment and received pre-treatment ultrasound examinations were included. Comprehensive data on clinical and sonographic features, along with therapeutic responses, were collected. Subjects with an ideal prognosis were compared to those experiencing R/R events.
About 37 patients with PTL underwent analysis, comprising 26 with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, 2 with follicular lymphoma, and 9 with mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma. Over a median follow-up of 25 months, 30 patients achieved complete response, 4 were refractory, and 3 experienced local relapse. No significant difference was found in baseline clinical characteristics between patients with an ideal prognosis and those with refractory/local relapse events.
However, in terms of sonographic features, patients with bilobar enlargement had poorer event-free survival (EFS) than those without (P < 0.0001), and those with diffuse type had poorer EFS than those with mixed/nodular types (P = 0.043). No significant difference was observed in EFS between patients with or without signs of suspicious cervical lymph node metastasis, rich blood signal distribution, or symptoms of trachea compression. The study concluded that PTL patients exhibiting an anterior-posterior diameter > 2.5 cm for both thyroid lobes or those presenting with the diffuse ultrasound type may be susceptible to R/R events.
The study was sponsored by the National High-Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38509603/
Ji J, Gao L, Liu R, et al. (2024). “The potential value of ultrasound in predicting local refractory/relapse events in primary thyroid lymphoma patients.” Cancer Imaging. 2024 Mar 20;24(1):39. doi: 10.1186/s40644-024-00681-z. PMID: 38509603; PMCID: PMC10953231.
