Risk of death due to disease for thyroid fine-needle aspirations of well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas.

The risk of malignancy for some diagnoses in thyroid fine-needle aspirations is higher than the actual risk of clinical progression. Other measures of prognosis may be helpful in managing patients with indeterminate thyroid fine-needle aspiration diagnoses. We estimated the risk of death due to disease (RDDD) for well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma using a series of over 15 000 aspirates with over 2000 excisions and data from the SEER database. RDDD was low (1.3% or less for all categories). The RDDD of some indeterminate thyroid aspirates was higher than for malignant aspirates. The RDDD may provide additional information for patients and clinicians seeking to manage patients with indeterminate thyroid fine-needle aspirates.