Microscopic papillary thyroid cancer as an incidental finding in patients treated surgically for presumably benign thyroid disease.

BACKGROUND: Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) is a relatively common entity in the general population. AIM: To present our experience with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma of the thyroid as an incidental finding in patients treated surgically for presumably benign thyroid disease. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Histology reports of patients treated surgically with a preoperative diagnosis of benign thyroid disease were reviewed to identify patients with PTMC. Patients with a preoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer were excluded from this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The files of 380 patients who underwent surgery for presumably benign thyroid disease in our hospital from 1990 to 2002 were reviewed. Data regarding patient's demographics, pathology findings, management and outcomes, were retrieved. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The findings are expressed as absolute numbers and as percentages (with reference to the total number of patients of this study). RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients with PTMC diagnosed incidentally following thyroid surgery for presumably benign thyroid disease (27/380 or 7.1%) (multinodular goiter = 20 patients, follicular adenoma = 6 patients, diffuse hyperplasia of the thyroid = 1 patient) are presented. Mean diameter of PTMC was 4.4 mm. In 11 patients (40.7%) the tumor was multifocal and in about half of them tumor foci were found in both thyroid lobes. In two patients the tumor infiltrated the thyroid capsule. Total/near-total thyroidectomy was performed in all these patients (in three as completion thyroidectomy). All patients received suppression therapy and 20 of them underwent adjuvant radioiodine therapy. Follow-up (mean 4.56 years, range 1-12 years) was completed in 25 patients; all these patients were alive and disease-free. CONCLUSIONS: PTMC is not an uncommon incidental finding after surgery for presumably benign thyroid disease (7.1% in our series). The possibility of an underlying PTMC should be taken into account in the management of patients with nodular thyroid disease; total/near total thyroidectomy should be considered, at least in selected patients with presumably benign nodular thyroid disease.

New legislative regulations, problems, and future perspectives, with a particular emphasis on surgical education.

Major changes in the residency-training systems are currently under way worldwide. New laws regulating the maximum number of work-hours per week are already enforced in the USA and are soon to be enforced in the European Union (EU); they apply to residents in training, as well as to practising specialists in the USA. These changes are expected to influence training imparted to resident doctors, quality of care given to hospitalised patients and functioning of hospitals, in general. The implications of the new regulations are likely to be magnified by the gradual decrease in the number of young people willing to take up Medicine as a career and even more so by the decrease in the number of medical graduates who choose to take up Surgery as their specialty. This communication describes the new situation that has developed (especially in general surgery) with the recent regulations and intends to suggest possible solution to the important problems that are likely to arise.

Lateral cervical cyst with unsuspected metastasis from an occult tonsillar carcinoma.

Lateral cervical cysts containing squamous cell carcinoma is a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for the clinician since they usually represent a cystic metastasis from an occult carcinoma. Various imaging modalities or even blind biopsies will help identify the primary tumour. If the primary tumour is identified, an appropriate treatment decision can be made that incorporates both the primary tumour and the cervical node. If the primary remains unidentified, the neck is treated with a modified or radical neck dissection, depending on the extent of metastatic disease, and radiation therapy is administered to Waldeyer's ring and both necks. We present in this paper, a case with a large cervical cyst where histology showed the presence of a poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma in the wall of the cyst. A diagnostic evaluation of the patient was negative. Blind biopsies of the right tonsil revealed occult squamous cell carcinoma. The patient was treated by combined chemo/radiotherapy and she is doing well nine months following excision of the mass. The relevant literature is briefly reviewed.