Predicting a cancer recurrence, especially rare forms such as parathyroid cancer, is a patient's best bet for early treatment and improved outcomes. A recent study, published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, tested a prognosis tool's ability to predict the recurrence of parathyroid cancer.

Parathyroid cancer can be difficult to diagnose and deadly when caught too late. It also comes back in more than half of patients after the first surgical attempt at tumor removal. Researchers developed two indicators to identify higher rates of calcium in patients’ blood for those over the age of 65. The tool considers serum calcium levels greater than 15 mg/dL and tumors in blood vessels. By combining these indicators, researchers developed the tool to sort patients into low-, moderate- and high-risk groups as well has determining the best postoperative strategy with aggressive surveillance and additional treatment.

“Currently, there has been no reliable system to predict who will recur,” said study author Angelica Silva-Figueroa, MD, a surgeon at RedSalud Avansalud Clinic in Chile. “What is needed is a prognostic staging system for parathyroid cancer. We do not know which group of patients has an increased risk of relapse at the time of diagnosis.”

The study analyzed data from parathyroid patients from 68 patients from 1980 and 2016 at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Some 26 patients developed recurrent cancer after an average of 4.6 years. Researchers found two-year recurrence-free survival after parathyroidectomy was 93 percent in low-risk patients, 72 percent in moderate-risk patients and 27 percent in high-risk patients.

"We believe that this scoring system is the first step in personalized cancer care," Silva-Figueroa said. "The system may help physicians predict the clinical progression of this disease, reliably aid immediate postoperative treatment decisions, and guide clinical monitoring for progression."