title: Clinical characteristics of hereditary and sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the clinical characteristics and outcomes of the hereditary medullary thyroid carcinoma (HMTC) and the sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma (SMTC).
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical data of 78 patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma who underwent surgery in our hospital between July 1980 and May 2011 were retrospectively analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of these 78 patients, there were 23 HMTC cases and 55 SMTC cases. The HMTC group was significantly younger age of onset [(36.4±13.5) years vs. (46.6±11.2) years, P<0.01] and a lower pre/post-operative serum calcitonin levels [(850.4±110.20) ng/L vs. (1450.4±118.3) ng/L, P<0.01 and (410.8±133.2) ng/L vs. (1585.4±129.5) ng/L, P<0.01] than the SMTC group. In addition, the mean tumor diameter was also significantly smaller in the HMTC group (14.3 mm vs. 21.0 mm in SMTC group, P<0.05). Tumor multifocality was seen in a significantly higher proportion of HMTC cases compared with the SMTC cases (56.6% vs. 29.1%, P<0.05). The overall 10-year survival was 100% in HMTC group and 80.2% in SMTC group (P<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HMTC has a better prognosis than SMTC.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, PUMC Hospital, CAMS and PUMC, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yu-pei
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Wei-bin
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tai-ping
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D018276:Carcinoma, Medullary / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D018278:Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine; D005260:Female; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult