A pathologic re-review of follicular thyroid neoplasms: the impact of changing the threshold for the diagnosis of the follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

摘要

To the Editors:We would challenge the conclusions of the recent article published in Surgery by Widder et al, "A pathologic re-review of follicular thyroid neoplasms: the impact of changing the threshold for the diagnosis of the follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma."1 In that study, the authors concluded that reclassification of follicular neoplasms increased malignant lesions in their patient group from 36% to 48%. Although no clinical ramifications were observed in the patients with the change of diagnosis, the ethical issues surrounding these 46 patients were important and presented a substantive quandary to the clinicians responsible for their care. We submit that the authors made an incorrect assumption about the accuracy of their review that led to an overstated conclusion.