Purpose: Although papillary thyroid carcinomas are known to have a good prognosis, invasive papillary thyroid carcinomas have different outcomes. There are many studies on the prognostic factors for thyroid carcinomas, but few studies have been
performed for invasive papillary thyroid carcinomas. We performed this study to investigate the prognosis and the prognostic factors for invasive papillary thyroid carcinomas. Methods: We analyzed 184 patients with papillary thyroid carcinomas
who
had
undergone a thyroidectomy between 1985 and 1990, especially for the clinicopathologic entity of an invasive papillary thyroid carcinoma, and made univariate and multivariate analyses for various clinical and pathological factors to evaluate
whether
they
would be of value in estimating the prognosis in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients. Results: In the univariate analysis of the 10-year disease-free survival rate of the overall cases, sex, tumor size, and lymph-node metastasis were confirmed
to
be
significant prognostic factors. In the multivariate analysis, all of these factors were independent significant prognostic factors. Invasive papillary thyroid carcinoma patients, compared to non-invasive papillary thyroid carcinoma patients, were
older
and more prone to metastasis to cervical lymph nodes. In the univariate analysis of the 10-year disease-free survival rate of patients with an invasive papillary thyroid carcinoma, sex, tumor size, and lymph-node metastasis were significant
prognostic
factors. However, in the multivariate analysis, sex and tumor size appeared to be independent significant prognostic factors. Conclusion: We conclude that invasive papillary thyroid carcinomas have a the tendency to occur in elderly patients and
are
more prone to metastasis to cervical lymph nodes. The male sex, a tumor size more than 5 cm, and positive cervical-lymph-node metastasis present the worse prognosis. However, a randomized prospective study may be needed to better understand how
to
manage invasive papillary thyroid carcinomas.
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