Surgical treatment of thyroid cancers with concurrent Graves disease.
BACKGROUND
Thyroid cancers with concurrent Graves disease are relatively rare. Accordingly, the natural history and optimal surgical treatment of thyroid cancers with Graves disease are controversial.


METHODS
Sixty-one thyroid cancers with concurrent Graves disease were retrospectively reviewed. Histopathologic diagnoses included 58 papillary thyroid carcinomas (95.1%), 1 follicular carcinoma (1.6%), 1 medullary carcinoma (1.6%), and 1 Hürthle cell carcinoma (1.6%).


RESULTS
The sample included 54 females and seven males. Subjects' ages ranged from 20 to 73 years (mean +/- SD, 35.9 +/- 10.6 years; median, 37 years). Average tumor size was 10.7 +/- 15.9 mm (range, 1-70 mm). Forty-nine tumors (80.3%) were 10 mm or smaller. Surgical procedures included subtotal thyroidectomy (40 patients), total thyroidectomy (16 patients), total thyroidectomy plus neck dissection (2 patients), near-total thyroidectomy (1 patient), and lobectomy with contralateral subtotal lobectomy (1 patient). Thirty-seven patients (60.7%) underwent postoperative 131I ablation for thyroid remnant. Neck lymph node metastases occurred in three patients and lung metastases in two patients. Patients who developed metastases were younger and had significantly larger tumors and higher pretreatment serum T3 level than those who did not develop metastases. No deaths occurred during the 6.2 +/- 4.1 year follow-up period (range, 1 year and 2 months to 18 years and 11 months).


CONCLUSIONS
Most thyroid cancers with concurrent Graves disease were 10 mm or smaller. Subtotal thyroidectomy is adequate for patients with Graves disease with concurrent carcinoma 10 mm or smaller.
Chao
Tzu-Chieh
TC
Department of Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan. tcchao@adm.cgmh.org.tw
Lin
Jen-Der
JD
Chen
Miin-Fu
MF
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006111:Graves Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014284:Triiodothyronine / Q000097:blood
D014284:Triiodothyronine