Propensity score matching analysis of the prognosis for the rare oxyphilic subtype of thyroid cancer (Hurthle cell carcinoma)

There is controversy regarding the prognosis of patients with oxyphilic thyroid cancer (OXTC). The present study compared the prognoses of OXTC, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), and follicular thyroid cancer (FTC), in order to provide a new perspective regarding the treatment guidelines for these diseases. We evaluated data from patients with thyroid cancer who were included in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 2004 and 2013. Patient mortality was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression analyses and Kaplan-Meier analyses with log-rank tests. The multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the cancer-specific survival rate for OXTC was similar to that for PTC, but higher than that for FTC. However, after propensity score matching for relevant factors, the cancer-specific survival rate for OXTC was higher than that for PTC and FTC. This unexpected result provides new implications for the treatment of patients with OXTC.