Famed Thyroid Pathologist Refuses to Review Possible NIFTP Cases

An article recently appeared in CAP Today,  a publication of the College of American Pathologists about NIFTP, which is a revised designation for a type of thyroid cancer.  Non-invasive encapsulated follicular variant (N-EFVPTC) was reclassified as being nonmalignant, a change which will likely significantly reduce the number of thyroid cancer cases which are diagnosed yearly in the USA and worldwide.

The article gives the views of several well-known pathologists and clinicians about the impact of the reclassification.  Surprisingly, although the reclassification has been touted as being especially beneficial because of its potential to reduce psychological harms to patients, the article suggests that many pathologists and clinicians do not see any reason to inform the thousands of individuals who have already received the N-EFVPTC diagnosis that their “cancer” has been reclassified.

The well-regarded thyroid pathologist and opinion leader, Virginia Livolsi, of the University of Pennsylvania goes so far as to belittle thyroid cancer patients who read the New York Times article about the NIFTP reclassification.  She states:

“They want their tumor from two years ago to be reviewed, which is totally inappropriate”…” Two years ago, the entity and the name did not exist. Patients were treated at the time according to the standards of the time”… “I feel strongly that research results—that’s what these are—do not belong in a patient’s medical record. To go back on the basis of somebody reading something in The New York Times? That’s wrong”.

Ironically, Virginia Livolsi is also quoted in the CAP Today article as having been impressed by a presentation given by Guy Maytal, of Harvard University during the course of the study which resulted in the nomenclature revision for NIFTP.  Dr. Maytal spoke about the psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis. According to the article:

Dr. LiVolsi called Dr. Maytal’s talk “absolutely amazing.”

What could be behind the apparent reluctance of Virginia Livolsi and some other pathologists and clinicians to review past cases of N-EFVPTC and therefore remove the stigma of a cancer diagnosis for these patients?

Keep reading this blog for a future article on this topic.