Observer Variation in Histologic Classification of Thyroid Cancer
- 1 July 1978
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Acta Pathologica Microbiologica Scandinavica Section A Pathology
- Vol. 86A (1-6), 483-486
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1699-0463.1978.tb02073.x
Abstract
Histologic slides of 696 cases of thyroid cancer reported to the national cancer registries of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were reviewed by 5 Nordic pathologists in order to determine the observer variation between the pathologists, as well as the reproducibility of the WHO classification of thyroid tumours. In 58% of the cases all observers agreed upon the diagnosis and in 82% at least three of them agreed. The observer disagreement was lowest for papillary carcinoma (7%) and highest for follicular carcinoma (27%). The corresponding figures for anaplastic and medullary carcinomas were 18% and 23%, respectively. The most common diverging diagnosis for cases finally interpreted as papillary carcinoma was follicular carcinoma, and for cases finally interpreted as follicular carcinoma, a benign thyroid lesion. The results of the present study clearly indicate the necessity of having all cases reviewed by the same pathologist or group of pathologists in order to obtain reliable results for comparative studies.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Histopathologic review of lymphoma cases from the southwest oncology groupCancer, 1977
- Medullary carcinoma of the thyroid.Diagnostic problemsCancer, 1976
- Histologic Classification as a Problem in the Epidemiology of Thyroid CancerPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1972
- Observer variability in the histopathologic diagnosis of lung cancer.Published by Elsevier BV ,1970
- Survey of the eventual diagnosis in 600 cases referred for a second histological opinion after an initial biopsy diagnosis of Hodgkin's diseaseJournal of Clinical Pathology, 1968
- Consistency in the histological diagnosis of epithelial abnormalities of the cervix uteriJournal of Clinical Pathology, 1968
- Application of the World Health Organization Classification of Lung Carcinoma to Biopsy MaterialThe Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 1965