Malignant thyroid tumours, pathological aspects in relation to different types of management

ABSTRACT

This work is a retrospective study of 90 patients with thyroid cancer in the Radiotherapy Department of Mansoura University Hospital during the period 1973-1986 inclusive. This study included analysis of epidemiological features, clinical presentation, different types of investigation, lines of treatment and survival. It was found that the relative frequency of thyroid cancer to all malignancy recorded during the same period was 1.7% with male to female of 1 1.4 and peak age incidence in the sixth decade of life. Papillary carcinoma constituted 34.6% of the total thyroid cancer, while follicular carcinoma represented 21.3%, mixed 12%, medullary 6.7% and anaplastic 25.3%. Lymph node metastases were common than distant metastases in all pathological subtypes except in follicular carcinoma. Patients who have received postoperative iodine or external irradiation therapy showed statistically significant decrease in the rate of recurrence in the well differentiated carcinoma than using surgical treatment alone. Well differentiated cancer showed good life span, however anaplastic and medullary carcinoma showed short life span