BRAF V600E mutation in prognostication of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) recurrence

The increase in the prevalence of thyroid cancer, which is the most common endocrine carcinoma has been observed within the last three decades. It is estimated that by 2019 thyroid cancer will have been the third most prevalent malignant tumor in women in the USA (1). This phenomenon is observed worldwide. For instance, the standardized incidence rate in Poland was 4.9 per 100,000 inhabitants whereas in 1990 it was only 1.0 (2). The fact whether it is a real increase in incidence or the increase in the detection due to the development of more precise diagnostic approaches (sensitive ultrasound, access to fine needle aspiration biopsy) is of lesser significance. As a consequence, the population of newly detected low-advanced thyroid cancers is constantly growing (3). This has one more time resulted in the discussion on optimization of therapeutic strategy. The strategy is related to avoid overtreatment (with unnecessary exposing patients to an increased risk of complications) and undertreatment (i.e., increase in the risk of recurrence and treatment failure) (4-7)