Comparison of the clinical characteristics of primary thyroid lymphoma and diffuse sclerosing variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma

Objective Both primary thyroid lymphoma (PTL) and diffuse sclerosing variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (DSVPTC) are two rare malignant tumours with different therapies and prognoses. This study compared their clinical features. Methods From a retrospective review of the pathologic database at our institute between January 2015 and August 2020, 52 PTL patients and 40 DSVPTC patients were included. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and ultrasound data were extracted from electronic medical records. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism 5.0. Results Both PTL and DSVPTC were more likely to occur in women (83.7 and 67.5%, respectively), but DSVPTC patients were younger (median age: 36 vs 64.5), had fewer compressive symptoms, and more frequently had neck lymph node metastasis than PTL patients. The prevalence of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and hypothyroidism was significantly higher in PTL patients than in DSVPTC patients (31% vs 17.5%). Hyperthyroidism could only be found in DSVPTC patients, which accounted for 7.5%. Heterogeneous echogenicity and irregular edges were frequently observed in both PTL and DSVPTC. However, compared with PTL, DSVPTC exhibited smaller lesion sizes, higher frequencies of diffuse sonographic patterns and calcification and lower frequencies of hypoechoic features and internal blood flow signal. The overall survival rate with PTL was 77.23%, which was lower than that with DSVPTC (90.91%), but this difference was not significant (P = 0.096). Conclusion Clinical characteristics such as age, compression symptoms, and sonographic features such as a large mass with heterogeneous echogenicity, hypoechoic, irregular edges, and calcification are helpful for impression diagnosis of PTL and DSVPTC before surgery.