Demographic and Clinical Characteristics
Our cohort consisted of 36 patients with pediatric PTC. Of those, 34 were diagnosed between ages 8-19 years, with the majority of patients being 15-19 years (Table 1). The male-to-female ratio was 1:3. Metastasis to cervical lymph nodes occurred in 29 of the 36 patients (81%), of which 10 also had lung metastases (28%). Tumor relapse post-surgery occurred in 18 of the patients (50%). In addition, while the majority of our cohort was comprised of patients without prior history of irradiation, we did include 8 patients (22%) who had undergone radiation therapy, including 2 patients with a history of Hodgkin lymphoma and 4 patients who received whole body irradiation prior to bone marrow transplant. The time from prior radiation to diagnosis of thyroid cancer ranged from 6 to 18.5 years (median 10.9 years). All patients underwent surgical resection of the thyroid gland, and 34 of 36 received RAI (94%). Tumors ranged in size between 0.2-7 cm, with a median size of 2.2 cm.