Thyroid carcinoma in children, adolescents and adults, both spontaneous and after childhood radiation exposure

Abstract

Thyroid carcinoma is the most common second malignancy for childhood cancer survivors. Radiation exposure is linked to risk. Thyroid nodules in children have a high risk for malignancy, whether spontaneous or after radiation. Due to the extremely limited available paediatric data, we sought to review a series of patients with thyroid carcinoma, seen over 25 years. Forty-six patients were identified. Thirty-nine (84.8 %) had papillary thyroid carcinoma, five (10.9 %) follicular carcinoma and 2 (4.3 %) medullary thyroid carcinoma (MEN2B). Thirty-three (71.7 %) had childhood radiation exposure (17 females) with thyroid malignancy occurring 6–37 years later. The smallest nodule size found on sur..