During the 40 ± 29 months of follow-up (range 6-132), 14 of 104 (13%) patients had recurrence of disease. pTg was an independent indicator to predict disease-free survival. Using a pTg cutoff of < 10 ng/ml the negative predictive value was 99%, sensitivity 93%, specificity 82%, positive likelihood ratio (LR) 5.2 and negative LR 0,087.