Childhood Thyroid Carcinoma: Pathologic Considerations and Their Therapeutic Implications*

DURING the past five years, 79 new patients with carcinoma of the thyroid gland have been seen at the University of Iowa Hospitals. The mean age was 46.7 years; the median, 48 years. Eight or 10.1 per cent were less than 15 years of age. In Table 1 the number of patients in each decade has been indicated. These data agree with the findings of others (1) and serve to point out that this lesion has an age incidence quite different from that of other malignant neoplasms. A considerable difference of opinion exists with regard to the proper treatment of patients with carcinoma of the thyroid in all age groups. The slow progression of the lesion with late metastases, seen in all histologic types except the undifferentiated ones, and the lack of histologic uniformity in any one patient are perhaps the two most important factors leading to these differences of opinion.