title: Incidental carcinoma of the thyroid.
abstract: The diagnosis of incidental thyroid carcinoma in patients submitted to thyroidectomy for a benign disease is quite frequent. A retrospective analysis was performed on 455 patients submitted to surgical intervention in order to establish the incidence of this kind of carcinoma. Two hundred fifty-six patients (56%) were affected by benign disease (176 multinodular goiter, 12 uninodular goiter, 1 Plummer disease and 67 Basedow disease) and 202 (44%) by carcinoma. In 28 of 256 patients (11%), affected by benign disease, occurred a histological diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma, (10 papillary carcinoma, 1 follicular carcinoma, 29 papillary carcinoma follicular variant). In this study it's considered incidental thyroid carcinoma the one occurred in patients who never underwent Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) and there were no suspicious features in all exams that may suggest the presence of carcinoma. Twenty-three of the 40 incidental carcinoma (57.5%) were microcarcinomas. Ten patients had a sincronous carcinoma. Actually, these patients are still in a follow up program and no recurrency of disease is occasionally observed. This study shows that the only way to put doubts on the real benignity of the disease is the fine needle aspiration; there are no other instruments that could identify the occurrence of the carcinoma. Moreover in the majority of cases the incidental carcinoma is a microcarcinoma, it doesn't reach significant volume, may be not centered by a FNA, but in most cases it's not really biologically aggressive.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Organs Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico di Bari, P.zza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pezzolla
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Organs Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico di Bari, P.zza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Rinaldo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marzaioli
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Organs Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico di Bari, P.zza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari, Italy. Electronic address: s.lattarulo@virgilio.it.
authors.forename: Serafina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lattarulo
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Second University of Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Docimo
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiologic, Surgical and Emergency Sciences, VII Division of General and Endocrine Surgery, Second University of Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Conzo
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Organs Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico di Bari, P.zza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ciampolillo
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Organs Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico di Bari, P.zza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Graziana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barile
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Organs Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico di Bari, P.zza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Ferdinando Massimiliano
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Anelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Organs Transplantation, University of Bari, Policlinico di Bari, P.zza Giulio Cesare 11, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Madaro
mesh_terms: D018263:Adenocarcinoma, Follicular / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D013965:Thyroidectomy; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Incidental carcinoma; Microcarcinoma; Thyroid