Thyroid Fna Cytology: Differential Diagnoses and Pitfalls

Kennichi Kakudo, MD, PhD, FIAC is specialized in the diagnostic surgical pathology of endocrine organs. His scientific contributions were published in more than 300 peer-reviewed papers covering borderline thyroid tumors (PMID: 21070478, PMID: 21908930, PMID: 22360502, PMID: 27078145), intrathyroidal thymic carcinoma (PMID: 3260644, PMID: 17210519, PMID: 23233417), C cell carcinoma (PMID: 210736, PMID: 463561, PMID: 3103327), prognostic risk classification of thyroid carcinoma using the Ki67 labelling index (PMID: 20703465, PMID: 25195708, PMID: 33980775), and IgG4 thyroiditis (PMID: 20097712, PMID: 22555173, PMID: 31861966). He is an author of the fourth and fifth editions WHO Classification of thyroid tumors, the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology, and the clinical guidelines by the Japanese Thyroid Association (JTA), including the JTA reporting system for thyroid FNA cytology (PMID: 24727657, PMID: 25722720). He is a founding member and the first president of the Asian Thyroid Working Group (PMID: 29046516, PMID: 29073758), which characterized Asian thyroid nodule practice in over 50 publications. One of the most well-known contributions of his scientific achievements is the diversity in thyroid nodule practice among countries, which was published in a recent commentary in Cancer Cytopathology (PMID: 37278105) and many more (PMID: 34060946, PMID: 32767256, PMID: 35159081, PMID: 33224851, PMID: 31556708, PMID: 29094782, PMID: 28486057).

Zhiyan Liu, MD, PhD, MIAC is the Director of Department of Pathology Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, China. She performs general surgical pathology, and is specialized in endocrine pathology and thyroid cytopathology. She is the vice president of Thyroid Cancer Committee of Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology, standing committee member in Tumor Pathology Committee of China Anti-cancer Association, a core member of Asian Thyroid Working Group, and member of the International Academy of Cytology and American Thyroid Association. Zhiyan Liu has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She is the first who proposed to set up a borderline tumor category, WDT-UB (well differentiated thyroid tumor uncertain clinical behavior, synonym of NIFTP) (PMID: 21070478), in the thyroid tumor classification in 2011, far before the NIFTP proposal. She is the first author of the first edition of Chinese Expert consensus on the cytopathological diagnosis of thyroid fine needle aspiration (version 2023).

Andrey Bychkov, MD, PhD, FRCPath is the Director of Digital Pathology at Kameda Medical Center in Kamogawa, Japan. His subspecialty is thyroid pathology and he has contributed to the 2022 WHO classification of endocrine and neuroendocrine tumors. Dr. Bychkov is a co-founding member of the Asian Thyroid Working Group. He curates the thyroid chapter and serves as a deputy editor for PathologyOutlines, as well as an academic editor for several international journals. He has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters.

Mitsuyoshi Hirokawa, MD, PhD, FIAC is the director of the Department of Diagnostic Pathology and Cytology at Kuma Hospital, Kobe, Japan. His specialty is thyroid cytology. He has diagnosed more than 7,000 cases of thyroid cytology and 1,700 cases of resected thyroid tissue annually. He has also performed more than 2000 thyroid aspirations annually. He has published more than 300 papers on thyroid cytology. He is one of the authors of the 3rd edition of The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology.

Dr. Chan Kwon Jung is a professor of pathology at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital (The Catholic University of Korea). His main fields of expertise are thyroid pathology/cytopathology, molecular pathology, and digital pathology. Dr. Jung served as a coauthor on the fifth edition of the World Health Organization classification of thyroid tumors and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles. He is currently editor-in-chief for the Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine and serves on the editorial boards of Thyroid, Endocrine Pathology, Cancers, and the Journal of Korean Medical Science.

Dr. Chiung-Ru Lai is the past President of Taiwan Society of Clinical Cytology (2015-2021) and Taiwan Society of Pathology (2017-2023) and the current president of the Asian Thyroid Working Group. She has practiced surgical pathology and cytopathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of Taipei Veterans General Hospital for over 30 years. She is one of the regional editors of Acta Cytologica and also serves as an editorial board member of Diagnostic Cytopathology. In addition to publishing scientific papers, she is also one of the authors of the 3rd edition of The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology.