Results of life-long follow-up of patients with potential radioinduced well differentiated thyroid cancer after ultimate thyroidectomy

Abstract

Because all well differentiated thyroid carcinomas were developing in patients who were children or adolescents at the time of the Chernobyl accident belong to  potential radioinduced thyroid cancer, and the number of such cases increases from year to year, the aim of the present work was to study the rate of metastases and  the results of life-long follow-up of such patients after ultimate thyroidectomy. 118 cases of well differentiated thyroid cancer were studied: 84 papillary thyroid  carcinomas (PTC) and 34 follicular thyroid carcinomas (FC). It was shown that most of PTCs under study (71 out of 84, 85%) represented carcinomas with low potential  of aggressiveness and were characterized by a low rate of regional micrometastases (7.0%), signs of multifocal growth into the contralateral thyroid lobe (4.2%),  absence of  distant metastases and recurrence during post-operative period. In cases of FCs – regardless of tumor’s size – metastases were absent.