Liu L, et al. - Researchers performed a comparison of differences in clinical outcomes, according to the presence and extent of extrathyroidal extension (ETE), between different primary tumor size groups in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). From 2004 to 2010, 381 patients with PTC were identified who underwent total thyroidectomy with or without lymph node (LN) dissection. Patients with ETE displayed a higher recurrence rate than those without ETE among the PTC patients with primary tumors >1 cm. Only macroscopic ETE was noted to affect recurrence in patients with PTC > 1cm. Data thereby suggest an association between the presence and degree of ETE and PTC outcome based on primary tumor size.