title: [Prophylactic thyroid surgery].
abstract: Early diagnosis for thyroid carcinoma, potentially before neoplastic transformation has taken place, would allow preventive and thus curative surgical intervention. Identifying and characterizing the RET proto-oncogene as the disease-causing gene for hereditary medullary thyroid carcinoma and then establishing a genotype-phenotype correlation served as the prerequisite for the risk-adapted prophylactic surgical approach practised today. Carriers of RET mutations associated with very aggressive tumour behaviour should be subjected to prophylactic thyroidectomy within the 1st year of life. For individuals harbouring less virulent types of mutations, prophylactic intervention is recommended at 5-20 years. Although genetic research on hereditary nonmedullary thyroid cancer is still in progress, initial results indicate the need of prophylactic surgical treatment also for this subgroup of thyroid neoplasia.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Essen. frilling@uni-essen.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frilling
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D018276:Carcinoma, Medullary / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005820:Genetic Testing; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018813:Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2a / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D010641:Phenotype; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret / Q000235:genetics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000473:pathology; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013965:Thyroidectomy
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; C000715470:MAS1 protein, human; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; C099282:RET protein, human