The story of poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma: From Langhans’ description to the Turin proposal via Juan Rosai

Rosai, reinterpreting Langhans’ “proliferating goiter,” adopted the term “poorly differentiated carcinoma” for a specific thyroid tumor with insular features 30 years ago. This tumor type is only one of those approached by Dr. Rosai in the thyroid field (a PubMed search as of August 31, 2015 on “Rosai & thyroid” disclosed 73 articles), but seems the most innovative and representative of his heavy contribution to thyroid tumor classification. The diagnostic problems associated with PDTC recognition date back a long time, with a still ongoing debate on the nature of PDTC, its morphological diagnostic features, its clinical significance, and its optimal therapeutic approach. In 2004, PDTC was at last incorporated in the WHO classification of thyroid tumors, but the proposed diagnostic criteria were heterogeneous, controversial, and hardly applicable in the diagnostic practice. A consensus conference held in Turin in 2006 was lead by the authors and Dr. Rosai and confirmed the presence of geographical differences among claimed classical PDTC forms, which were responsible for a poor interobserver reproducibility of the diagnostic criteria. A diagnostic algorithm was therefore designed to define the crucial parameters to categorize PDTC and better stratify these distinctly aggressive tumors.