Treatment of Metastatic Lymph Nodes in the Neck from Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma with Percutaneous Laser Ablation

PurposeTo assess the effectiveness of percutaneous laser ablation (PLA) of cervical lymph node metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma.Materials and Methods24 patients (62.3 ± 13.2 year; range 32–80) previously treated with thyroidectomy, neck dissection, and radioiodine ablation underwent ultrasound-guided PLA of 46 ¹⁸FDG-PET/CT—positive metachronous nodal metastases. All patients were at high surgical risk or refused surgery and were unsuitable for additional radioiodine ablation. A 300 µm quartz fiber and a continuous-wave Nd-YAG laser operating at 1.064 mm were used. Technical success, rate of complications, rate of serological conversion, and local control at follow-up were derived. Fisher's exact test and Mann–Whitney U test were used and Kaplan–Meier curve calculated.ResultsTechnical success was obtained in all 46 lymph nodes (100 %). There were no major complications. Thyroglobulin levels decreased from 8.40 ± 9.25 ng/ml before treatment to 2.73 ± 4.0 ng/ml after treatment (p = 0.011), with serological conversion in 11/24 (45.8 %) patients. Overall, local control was obtained in 40/46 (86.9 %) lymph nodes over 30 ± 11 month follow-up, with no residual disease seen at imaging in 19/24 (79.1 %) patients. Local control was achieved in 40/46 (86.9 %) lymph nodes at 1 year and in all of the 25 nodes (100 %) followed for 3 years. Estimated mean time to progression was 38.6 ± 2.7 m.ConclusionUltrasound-guided PLA is a feasible, safe, and effective therapy for the treatment of cervical lymph node metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma.