Papillary cancer and Hashimoto's thyroiditis

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most prevalent form of thyroid cancers, comprising about 80% of all diagnosed thyroid cancers. Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), which is autoimmune thyroiditis, is a well-defined clinicopathological entity and its incidence has increased over the past 50 years. Further, HT has shown a wide range of occurrence from 5 to 85% in thyroid specimens resected for PTC. However, the clinicopathological characteristics of PTCs with concomitant HT have not been definitely proposed.

Lee et al. conducted a meta-analysis to clarify the relationship between PTCs and histologically proven conventional HT and to investigate the clinicopathological features of PTCs with coexistent HT.

Their meta-analysis showed that PTC is significantly associated with pathologically confirmed HT. PTC patients with HT have favourable clinicopathological characteristics compared with PTCs without HT. However, patients with HT need to be carefully monitored for the development of PTC.

Read full article at Lee at al. (2013) European Journal of Endocrinology 168 343-349 DOI: 10.1530/EJE-12-0903.