Abstract
Aim. To evaluate the clinical, pathological and molecular factors associated with recurrence of papillary thyroid carcinoma in adolescents and young adults. Materials and methods. The study design was a multicentre retrospective study. The study included 246 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma, divided into two age groups: adolescents and young adults (aged 15 – 39 years) and patients over 39 years of age. Results and discussion . Adolescents and young adults were found to have larger primary tumours, a higher incidence of lymph node metastases (43.8% versus 23.4%; p=0.007) and a higher rate of recurrence (8.9% versus 2.0%; p=0.035). The BRAF V600E mutation was less common in adolescents and young adults (52.6% versus 76.1%; p=0.001). In the group of adolescents and young adults, recurrence was associated with lymph node metastases, a higher T stage, the TERT-p mutation, and the BRAF V600E/TERT-p combination. Conclusions. The obtained results indicate that in adolescents and young adults, papillary thyroid carcinoma is characterized by a more aggressive locoregional course, which justifies the need for a comprehensive clinical and molecular assessment of the risk of relapse.