ABCL-176 The Contribution of a Multidisciplinary Team in Enhancing Thyroid Lymphoma Management.

CONTEXT: Although thyroid lymphoma is an uncommon malignant disease, it is still important to consider in patients with an enlarging neck mass. Primary thyroid lymphoma (PTL) can be cured with chemoimmunotherapy without thyroidectomy, thus avoiding surgical complications as well as hormonal replacement therapy.

OBJECTIVE: The study aims to evaluate the clinical features, risk factors, and treatment outcomes of PTL.

DESIGN: Retrospective study.

SETTING: The study was carried out in the Oncology Center of Mansoura University.

PATIENTS: The study included 13 PTL patients (4 male and 9 female) with a median age of 58 years [range, 43-73 years].

INTERVENTIONS: The patients were treated with rituximab ± anthracycline-based regimens.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demonstration of the clinicopathological features of PTL patients.

RESULTS: In this study, 9 patients (69.3%) were diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration and core needle biopsy, 1 patient (7.7%) by hemithyroidectomy, and 3 patients (23%) by total thyroidectomy. The common stage of presentation was early stage, comprising 7 patients (53.8%), followed by advanced stage, comprising 6 patients (46.2%). Three patients (23.07%) had a history of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Two patients (15.4%) tested positive for hepatitis C virus. One patient (7.7%) had rheumatoid arthritis. One patient had a double malignancy in the form of thyroid carcinoma and thyroid lymphoma. Eight patients (61.6%) presented with high-intermediate and high International Prognostic Index risk. Four patients (30.8%) achieved completed remission, and the median disease-free survival was 20.58 months. The median overall survival was 11.5 months (range: 2.03-126.03 months).

CONCLUSIONS: The cooperation of a multidisciplinary team of physicians, surgeons, and pathologists is necessary to detect PTL early and enhance its outcome through significant improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.