Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics of familial nonmedullary thyroid carcinoma (FNMTC), in order to provide evidence for early diagnosis and treatment.
Methods: We retrospectively investigated the inpatients between September 2006 and September 2013 in the First Bethune Hospital of Jilin University, in which 78 patients with FNMTC from 31 families were analyzed by a comparison with 3445 control cases from the patients with sporadic nonmedullary thyroid carcinoma (SNMTC).
Results: There was no significant difference in gender, age, and tumor size between FNMTC and SNMTC patients. However, the characteristics of disease in multifoci, neck lymph node metastasis, invasion to the surrounding tissues, and coexistence with Hashimoto disease in two types of cancer patients show significant difference. They are: multifoci: 71.8% (56/78) in FNMTC versus 46.3% (1595/3445) in SNMTC; neck lymph node metastasis: 52.6% (41/78) in FNMTC versus 33.3% (1148/3445) in SNMTC; surrounding tissue invasion: 64.1% (50/78) in FNMTC versus 48.5% (1670/3445) in SNMTC; coexistence with Hashimoto disease: 30.8% (24/78) in FNMTC versus 20.0% (689/3445) in SNMTC.
Conclusion: Lymph node metastasis, multifoci, invasion to the surrounding tissues, and combination with chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis are the main features of FNMTC, which suggests the extent of the operation for FNMTC patients should be amplified properly.