Carcinoma of the Thyroid in Children

In 1950 Duffy and Fitzgerald1reported a series of 28 children with thyroid carcinoma, of whom 9 had received irradiation to the thymic area in infancy. Hesitant to draw conclusions from these figures, Duffy and Fitzgerald did suggest that the possible relationship of thymic irradiation and thyroid carcinoma "might be profitably explored." Although neither the report of Horn and Ravdin2in 1951 nor that of Warren and co-workers3in 1953 presented comparable statistics regarding the association of irradiation in infancy and later development of thyroid carcinoma, other studies have appeared which indicate that it is well worth while to pursue this line of inquiry. Simpson and her colleagues4reported that of 1400 children who had received thymic irradiation in infancy 6 subsequently developed thyroid carcinoma and 9 thyroid adenoma. In a control series of 1795 untreated siblings of the irradiated children, there were no cases of