Unanticipated Detection of Subcentimetric Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Series of 10 Cases from a Tertiary Care Hospital of Eastern Odisha, India

Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC) is the most common thyroid malignancy seen among children and adults exposed to ionising radiation. The term “microcarcinoma,” previously recognised as a different subtype, has been currently removed from the 5th edition of World Health Organisation (WHO) classification of thyroid tumours in the histomorphological classification, since currently the tumour size is now considered important for assessing aggressiveness. This is a retrospective cross-sectional study carried out in the histopathology section of Department of Pathology at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, Odisha, India. The study spanned a total duration of 24 months, from June 2022 to June 2024. All the histopathologically confirmed cases of PTCs based on recent 5th edition of WHO classification of thyroid tumours were collected and analysed. A total of 10 (aged 23 to 54 years) with a mean age of 36.6 years, were studied. The majority of the patients were female, with male to female ratio of 3:7. All 10 cases exhibited tumour sizes less than or equal to 1 cm in diameter. The ratio of left to right lobe involvement was 7:3. Eight cases were diagnosed as the classic subtype, while two other cases were diagnosed as follicular invasive encapsulated type and tall cell subtype of PTC. In present case series, authors observed that it is must to identify all the non neoplastic and neoplastic lesions based on architectural and nuclear features and identify the presence of microfoci measuring less than or equal to 1 cm in diameter, as these subtypes may be aggressive and proper intervention may be required.