• Recently Published Thyroid Research
• Thyroid Research Archive
• Clinical Research Projects

Thyroid Cancer

March 2007

• Age, extent of disease, and extent of treatment predict survival in patients with medullary thyroid cancer
  
  
• The presence of atypical cells in aspirates of follicular tumors suggests the presence of cancer
  
  
• There are no clinical or pathologic findings that predict the presence of cancer in the opposite thyroid lobe in patients with papillary thyroid cancer
  
  
• Undetectable serum thyroglobulin concentrations are strong evidence against recurrent thyroid cancer

November 2006

• Patients with multiple thyroid nodules are as likely to have a thyroid carcinoma as are patients with a solitary nodule
  
  
• The follicular-variant subtype of papillary thyroid cancer may be subdivided into subtypes with different characteristics
  
  
• Radioiodine therapy can cause abnormal testicular function in men with thyroid cancer

July 2006

• The increasing incidence of thyroid cancer is due to detection of very small papillary carcinomas
  
  
• Patients with thyroid cancer have a slightly increased risk of other cancers
  
  
• Multifocal papillary carcinomas usually arise from one clone of thyroid cells
  
  
• The prognosis of patients with Graves’ disease found to have a small thyroid carcinoma at thyroidectomy is excellent
  
  
• The prognosis of patients with diffuse sclerosing papillary carcinoma is poorer than that of patients with classical papillary carcinoma

March 2006

• Hurthle-cell carcinomas of the thyroid may have features of either papillary carcinomas or follicular carcinomas
  
  
• Ultrasonography of the neck is the best test for recurrent tumor in patients with a papillary microcarcinoma

November 2005

• Serum antithyroglobulin antibodies are not associated with poor outcome in patients with thyroid carcinoma
  
  
• Some patients with thyroid carcinoma benefit from radioactive iodine and external radiation therapy
  
  
• A rise in serum thyroglobulin after thyrotropin administration indicates the presence of tumor in patients with thyroid carcinoma

July 2005

• Patients with thyroid cancer who have low serum thyroglobulin concentrations after surgery have a low risk of tumor recurrence
  
  
• Combined surgical and radiation therapy may be of benefit in patients with anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid

March 2005

• Thyroid radioiodine scanning has little value in patients with thyroid carcinoma before first radioiodine therapy
  
  
• Patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma have a small papillary thyroid carcinoma more often than patients with other thyroid disorders
  
  
• Serum thyroglobulin values vary according to number and site of metastatic tumor in patients with thyroid carcinoma

November 2004

• Papillary thyroid carcinomas have mutations in the BRAF gene that can be detected in biopsy specimens
  
  
• Gene profiling can distinguish between papillary and follicular thyroid carcinomas and benign thyroid nodules
  
  
• A few thyroid nodules are tumors of other organs that have spread to the thyroid gland
  
  
• Radioactive iodine therapy may reduce the risk of recurrence of papillary and follicular carcinoma after surgery

July 2004

• Low and moderate doses of radioiodine are equally effective for ablation of thyroid remnants in patients with thyroid carcinoma
  
  
• Prognosis is good in patients with an incidentally detected medullary thyroid carcinoma
  
  
• Patients with poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma have a poorer prognosis than those with well-differentiated carcinomas
  
  
• Somatostatin scans can detect recurrent or metastatic tumor in patients with thyroid carcinoma

March 2004

• Serum calcitonin should be measured in patients with thyroid nodules

• Ultrasonography is valuable for detecting lymph-node metastases and local recurrence in patients with thyroid carcinoma

November 2003

• Positron emission tomography occasionally reveals incidental thyroid nodules

• Different serum thyroglobulin assays may give discordant results in patients with thyroid carcinoma

• Cervical lymph node spread and high calcitonin secretion predict recurrence of medullary thyroid carcinoma

July 2003

• Small papillary thyroid carcinomas grow very slowly

• Differentiated thyroid carcinoma can grow rapidly in older patients

• Among patients with Hurthle-cell carcinoma, older age and large tumor size predict a poor outcome

• Similar outcome in patients with Hurthle-cell carcinoma and follicular carcinoma

• The characteristics and course of pure papillary carcinoma and follicular variant of papillary carcinoma are similar

• The efficacy of iodine-131 therapy in patients with thyroid carcinoma is increased by a low iodine diet

March 2003

• Radioiodine can substitute for surgery to complete thyroidectomy in patients with thyroid cancer

• Serum thyrotropin concentrations rise soon after thyroxine therapy is stopped in patients with thyroid cancer

• Ultrasonography is the most sensitive test for detection of recurrent thyroid cancer in the neck

November 2002

• Completion thyroidectomy can be done safely after thyroid lobectomy in patients with thyroid carcinoma

• More extensive surgery and radioiodine therapy have had limited benefit in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma

• Radioiodine therapy does not impair fertility in men with thyroid carcinoma

• High serum antithyroglobulin concentrations after initial therapy predict recurrence in patients with thyroid carcinoma

July 2002

• Radioiodine scans have limited value in thyroid-cancer patients with undetectable serum thyroglobulin values

• Treatment with radioiodine does not decrease fertility in women with thyroid cancer

• Surgical resection of bone metastases may be beneficial in patients with thyroid cancer
  

March 2002

• Fine-needle aspiration biopsies of thyroid nodules that are "nondiagnostic" do not exclude thyroid carcinoma

• Thirty percent of patients with a thyroid nodule that is a follicular tumor on biopsy prove to have thyroid carcinoma

• Anaplastic cancer of the thyroid: a summary of 50 years' experience at a single institution