Diagnostic and Surgical Challenges in Parathyroid Neoplasia: An Extensive Analysis of a Single Endocrine Surgery Center Cohort of Patients.

BACKGROUND

Parathyroid neoplasia is a heterogeneous group of tumors, including parathyroid adenoma (PA), atypical parathyroid tumors (aPTs), and parathyroid carcinoma (PC). Differential diagnosis, especially preoperatively, between parathyroid carcinoma and the other two entities is challenging. The purposes of this study were to highlight the main differences between different parathyroid tumors and to evaluate how combined PC suspicion and intraoperative adjuncts can influence surgical decision-making and outcome-related issues.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective study of a database of patients diagnosed with parathyroid tumors who underwent surgical treatment at our endocrine surgery referral center between June 2019 and July 2024. Demographic, clinical, biochemical, imaging, intraoperative, immunohistochemical, and follow-up data were analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 83 cases were included in our study, divided for analysis into PA (n = 67), aPT (n = 9) and PC (n = 7) subgroups. The clinical profile of the cohort showed a significant difference ( < 0.05) between the PA, aPT, and PC subgroups regarding the presence of palpable tumors (0% vs. 11.11% vs. 14.29%), both bone and kidney involvement (14.93% vs. 44.44% vs. 85.71%), and extensive disease beyond bone and kidney involvement (4.48% vs. 44.44% vs. 71.43%). PTH levels over five times the normal value were present at significantly different rates ( < 0.001), with higher rates in the aPT and PC subgroups (55.56% and 85.71%, respectively) compared with the PA subgroup (7.46%). Also, a significant difference ( < 0.001) was observed when analyzing extreme albumin-corrected serum calcium elevations over 14 mg/dL, with much higher rates in the PC subgroup (71.43%) compared to PA (1.49%) and aPT (33.33%). On preoperative ultrasonography, a significantly higher number of PCs presented diameters ≥ 3 cm ( < 0.001), depth-to-width ratios (D/W) ≥ 1 ( = 0.003), suspicious delineation ( < 0.001), and suspicious echotexture features ( < 0.001), compared to PAs. On preoperative US performed by the surgeon, suspicious features for thyroid cancer were identified in five more patients compared to the four identified by the initial US evaluation, and all (10.84% of all patients) were confirmed on final histopathology as papillary thyroid cancers. Intraoperatively, a significant difference ( < 0.001) regarding parathyroid macroscopic suspicious features, including adhesions to the thyroid gland, was seen between subgroups. When analyzing only cases with resection, we found that, in all PC cases, a combined preoperative suspicion was present, and in five cases an intraoperative suspicion was raised. Immunohistochemical data showed significantly different median Ki-67 indices between subgroups (1, 2, and 5; = 0.008) and a different parafibromin staining profile between PC and aPT. Regarding intraoperative neuromonitoring use, a significantly lower incidence of voice changes related to the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve was observed in the monitoring vs. non-monitoring group (57.14% vs. 12.5%, = 0.019).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings confirm that, in a multimodal and combined diagnostic approach, early pre- and intraoperative PC suspicion can be raised in order to optimize surgical treatment and, thus, favorably influence the outcome. Utilizing all resources available, including intraoperative parathormone determination, laryngeal nerve neuromonitoring, and immunohistochemistry staining, can bring extra benefit to the management of these challenging cases.