Medullary and papillary tumors are frequently associated in the same thyroid gland without evidence of reciprocal influence in their biologic behavior.
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.
Biscolla
Rosa Paula
RP
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Ugolini
Clara
C
Sculli
Mariangela
M
Bottici
Valeria
V
Castagna
Maria Grazia
MG
Romei
Cristina
C
Cosci
Barbara
B
Molinaro
Eleonora
E
Faviana
Pinuccia
P
Basolo
Fulvio
F
Miccoli
Paolo
P
Pacini
Furio
F
Pinchera
Aldo
A
Elisei
Rossella
R
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
D015513:Oncogene Proteins; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; C099282:RET protein, human; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases