Abstract
Background. Microcarcinomas, minimum carcinomas, are tumors, which are in clinical practice defined as tumors <=1cm in size.
WHO defines thyroid microcarcinomas as tumors <= 2cm in size, which have different biological behavior. The aim of the study was to analyze the occurrence of MC in post-operative patients.
Methodology. Using retrospective analysis we evaluated the occurrence of thyroid microcarcinoma in post-operative patients.
Except for basic demographic data, carcinoma size and histological variance, we evaluated the occurrence of bilateral impairment, presence of multi-focuses and occurrence of regional throat metastases. Results.
From 2004 to 2008 we performed thyroid surgeries in 400 patients. Microcarcinoma was diagnosed in 34 patients (8.5%); 5 men and 29 women.
The average age of patients with microcarcinoma was 52 years, and unlike other patients undergoing surgery. Histologically, 32 cases (94%) were papillary carcinoma, from which 4 cases were papillary follicular and 2 were follicular carcinomas.
There were multifocal findings of microcarcinomas in 5 patients (15%), and 4 patients (12%) had bilateral involvement. The average size of the tumors was 5mm, sd 2.6.
Two patients (6%) had metastases in the lymph nodes of the neck. We carried out total thyroidectomies in 32 patients (94%) and hemithyroidectomies in 2 patients (6%).
Five patients (15%), i. e. both patients with metastases in the lymph nodes of the neck and three patients with bilateral multifocal carcinomas underwent postoperative adjuvant radioiodine 131I ablation therapy. Conclusion.
We do not consider microcarcinomas to be harmless, almost insignificant findings, due to the possibility of their future growth, metastasizing and reoccurrence. The increased risk of the MC occurrence was found in chronic lymphoplasmocellular thyroiditis (17%).