Analysis of thyroid carcinoma based on material registered in japan during 1977-1 986 with special reference to predominance of papillary type

Abstract

Histologic distribution showed that papillary carcinoma accounted for 78.4% of cases, follicular carcinoma accounted for 17.2%, medullary carcinoma for 1.4%, squamous cell carcinoma for 0.3%, and anaplastic carcinoma for 2.7%. There is a tendency in Japan to diagnose papillary carcinoma as follicular carcinoma and to diagnose malignant lymphoma as anaplastic carcinoma. It was considered that the percentage of papillary carcinoma was higher and the percentage of follicular carcinoma and anaplastic carcinoma was lower than foregoing values. The characteristics of thyroid carcinoma in Japan were described, and the low incidence of nonpapillary carcinoma compared with papillary carcinoma was discussed in relation to iodine excess as an etiologic factor.