title: Medullary and papillary tumors are frequently associated in the same thyroid gland without evidence of reciprocal influence in their biologic behavior.
abstract: Papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (mPTC), is a very frequent incidental finding with a frequency varying from a few percent to 35% at postmortem histopathologic examinations. However, the presence of mPTC in patients undergoing thyroidectomy for multinodular goiter (MNG) and for Graves' disease (GD) has been found to be lower. Patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) association have been published as anecdotal case reports, as well as kindred with familial MTC or multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) 2A with some members simultaneously affected by MTC and PTC. We studied the prevalence and the biological behavior of MTC associated with PTC, with particular attention to those cases in which a mPTC was incidentally found. Twenty-seven of 196 (13.8%) MTC cases showed an association with PTC and in particular 21 of 190 (11.05%) with an incidental mPTC. This percentage is higher than that reported in the literature on the association of mPTC with GD (2.8%-4.5%) and MNG (3%). Also the percentage of the more general association of MTC/PTC, not restricted to mPTC, found in our series (13.8%) is higher than that reported in studies that analyzed the prevalence of PTC (any size) in patients treated for MNG (7.5%). A similarly high percentage of MTC/PTC had not been reported before and in particular there are no reports on large series of MTC/PTC. We also analyzed the epidemiologic, clinical, and pathologic features of MTC associated and not associated with PTC without finding any difference. In particular the outcome of the MTC did not appear to be influenced by the presence of the PTC and the specific radioiodine treatments. Moreover, although we cannot completely exclude a shared pathogenic event as the cause of both MTC and PTC, the molecular analysis of RET gene alterations did not show any common mutation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosa Paula
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Biscolla
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ugolini
authors.forename: Mariangela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sculli
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bottici
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Castagna
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Romei
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cosci
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Molinaro
authors.forename: Pinuccia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Faviana
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Basolo
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Miccoli
authors.forename: Furio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pacini
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pinchera
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Elisei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018276:Carcinoma, Medullary / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D018095:Germ-Line Mutation; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009377:Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017354:Point Mutation; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D015513:Oncogene Proteins; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; C099282:RET protein, human; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases