Panel Disdussion

3rd International Congress of of Nuclear Medicine & & 15th 15th Iranian Annual Annual Congress of
Congress of Nuclear Medicine
Shahid Beheshti Shahid Beheshti University University of Medical of Medical Sciences Sciences 19-21 19-21 May May 2011
Comparison of pediatric thyroid cancer with adult thyroid
cancer in a single thyroid cancer clinic
Seyed Rasoul Zakavi 1 , Zohre Mousavi 2 , Vahidreza Dabbagh Kakhki 1 ,
Ramin Sadeghi 1
1 Mash’had University of Medical Science, Nuclear Medicine Research Center
2 Mash’had University of Medical Science, Endocrinology and metabolism
research Center
Aim: To find differences in general characteristics of thyroid cancer in
pediatric patients compared to adults.
Methods and patients: All thyroid cancer files in the main thyroid
cancer clinic in Khorasan were reviewed retrospectively. Different
variables were compared between pediatric (age of ≤16 years at the
time of diagnosis) and adult patients.
Results: 785 patients with thyroid cancer referred for thyroid cancer
clinic from 1995-2009. Thirty patients (20 female, 10 male) had
age≤16 years old at the time of diagnosis with mean age of 13.08
years. At the same period, 755 adult patients with mean age of
42.5±15.7 years also recorded in the center. The sex ratio was not
statistically significant comparing pediatric group with adult patients
(p=0.2). 3% of adults and 0% of pediatric group had family history
of thyroid cancer in first relatives (p=0.6) while 9.5% versus 5.9%
had family history of other cancers respectively (P=0.5). Distant
metastasis was the first presentation in 13.6% of pediatric and 9.4%
of adult patients (P=0.6). No pediatric patient and 6.1% of adults had
previous history of radiotherapy to head and neck region as a
predisposing factor (P=0.2). Papillary carcinoma was seen in 93.3%
of pediatric patients and 88.6% of adult patients (P=0.004).
Extrathyroid invasion was seen in 39.3% of adult and 35.7% of
pediatric group (P=0.8). Multifocal cancer was seen in 60.7% of
pediatric group and 39% of adult patients (P=0.02) Distant
metastasis was noted in 20% of pediatric and 8.9% of adult patients.
T staging analysis showed that T1 was less prevalent and T4 was
more prevalent in pediatric patients compared to adults(P=0.04). N
staging analysis showed that 88.6% of pediatric and 52.7% of adults
patients had N1(P=0.009).The mean number of involved lymph
nodes was 6.06±3.8 in pediatrics and 3.52±3.4 in adults(0.005).
There was no significant difference between adults and pediatrics in
tumor size either in preoperative sonography or in pathology, mean
first Tg level and mean first anti-Tg levels(P>0.2).
Conclusion: 3.8% of all thyroid cancer patients in our center
was