Background: The prognostic importance of vascular invasion has not been extensively studied in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

Objective: To determine whether the presence of vascular invasion in papillary thyroid carcinoma, even within the thyroid gland, is associated with more aggressive disease at diagnosis and a higher incidence of tumor recurrence.

Patients and methods: We identified 410 patients who had been diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer since 1986 who had a follow-up period of longer than 1 year (median follow-up, 5.5 years). Pathology reports were reviewed and patients were separated into 3 groups: no vascular invasion, intrathyroidal vascular invasion, and extrathyroidal vascular invasion.

Main outcome measures: Statistical comparison was performed by univariate and multivariate analysis.

Results: Patients with intrathyroidal vascular invasion were more likely to have distant metastasis at the time of diagnosis (26.1% vs 2.2%, P = .001). Similarly, patients with extrathyroidal vascular invasion had a higher incidence of distant metastases at diagnosis (40% vs 4.4%, P = .02). Patients with tumors identified to have intrathyroidal vascular invasion were more likely to develop distant recurrence (20% vs 3%, P = .002).

Conclusions: These associations were found to be independent by multiple regression analysis. Patient age, sex, palpable or fixed lymph nodes, radiation exposure, and race did not differ between the patient group with and those without vascular invasion. Preliminary analysis of our data suggests that the presence of vascular invasion in papillary, thyroid carcinoma, even within the thyroid gland, is associated with more aggressive disease at diagnosis and with a higher incidence of tumor recurrence.