Follicular Variant of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

(P=.03) or in the NHFTC group (P=.01) (12 [32%] of 37 patients vs 17 [15%] of 117 patients vs 6 [10%] of 58 patients, respectively). The incidence of cervical lymph node metastases was lower in the FVPTC group than in the PPTC group (P=.30) and higher than in NHFTC group (P=.004) (12 [32%] of 37 patients vs 53 [45%] of 117 patients vs 6 [10%] of 58 patients, respectively). At diagnosis, no patient with FVPTC showed distant metastases, compared with 5 patients (4%) with PPTC (P=.34)and19(33%)withNHFTC(P.001).Therewas no carcinoma-related death in the FVPTC group. The strikingly poorer prognosis for the NHFTC group was statistically significant (P.001), whereas the difference in carcinoma-specific survival between the PPTC and the FVPTC groups did show a trend toward better survival in the FVPTC group. Conclusion: The clinical behavior of the FVPTC group did not differ significantly from that of the PPTC group, whereas compared with the NHFTC group, the FVPTC groupshowedstatisticallysignificantdifferencesformost of the analyzed variables.