Analysis of Health Factors Influencing Well-Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Recurrence

Abstract

This study analyzed specific health factors that influenced the outcome of recurrence in well-differentiated thyroid cancer. The dataset we used to analyze the health factors were from 383 patients with reported clinicopathologic features that either experienced recurrence or not. Before performing any statistical technique on dataset, categorical variables were encoded to numerical values. A logistic regression model was then performed on each independent variable to demonstrate its direct impact on the chance of thyroid cancer recurrence. Key indicators that suggested positive influence of health factor on cancer recurrence was p value below .05, positive beta coefficient, and odds ratio above 1. The results from the logistic regression shown that age, male, smoking history, adenopathy, papillary, multifocal, risk, tumor size, nodal involvement, stage, and radiotherapy all increased odds of recurrence. On the other hand, being a female and a unifocal tumor decreased chances of recurrence.