(ANSA) – CAGLIARI, 03 MAY – Delaying operations during the pandemic has increased aggressiveness, metastases and the risk of recurrence in thyroid tumors: it therefore becomes crucial for patients affected by this type of neoplasm to enter the operating room within 3- 4 months from diagnosis. This is what emerges from an international endocrinological research led by professors Fabio Medas and Pietro Giorgio Calò, of the Department of Surgical Sciences of the University of Cagliari and recently published in the Lancet.
Involved in the retrospective study, with the analysis of data before and after the pandemic, 157 surgery departments of 49 countries and almost 23,000 patients with thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology. In total over 160 authors and nearly 350 collaborators from all over the world. “The study – explain the Cagliari researchers – showed that the patients operated on during the last phase of our study, corresponding to the period in which there was an attenuation of the pandemic (from June to December 2021), presented, compared to the operated patients before the pandemic, more aggressive thyroid carcinomas, in particular with larger dimensions, with a higher incidence of lymph node metastases and with a greater risk of local recurrence”.
“It is therefore possible – they underline that the delay in interventions caused by the pandemic has led to a higher incidence of aggressive thyroid tumors, even if we must not discard other hypotheses, for example the effect of Sars-CoV-2 infection which may have promoted the progression of already existing thyroid tumors, or greater attention in selecting patients with nodules with more aggressive characteristics in preoperative examinations”. “It is therefore necessary – conclude the study leaders – that the operations for these types of thyroid nodules are not postponed and postponed, even in the event of future restrictions, but are operated within a reasonable time, normally no later than 3-4 months from diagnosis “. (HANDLE).
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