Thyroid cancer in young patients in Great Britain

Abstract

Abstract Recent collective experience with thyroid cancer in children in Britain is reported. Fifteen out of 16 patients with papillary carcinoma treated in the years 1962–7 are still living at least 5–10 years later; the sixteenth patient died of an unrelated cause. Two patients with follicular carcinoma also survived. Seven deaths between 1957 and 1970 were due to anaplastic or medullary carcinomas and 1 death was caused by a papillary carcinoma. These data emphasize that in the treatment of papillary carcinoma we should take account of its prolonged natural history. Radical operations which have serious associated morbidity do not appear to be indicated.