Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The effect of hyperthyroidism on the development of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) has been controversial in the international bibliography. The aim of our study was to find the possibility of thyroid cancer appearance in patients with hyperthyroidism who underwent total thyroidectomy in comparison with patients without thyroid hyperfunction.

Material-Methodology: Between 2005–2010 228 patients (182 females/46 males) underwent total thyroidectomy for a variety of functional and non-functional thyroid disorders and the specimens were analysed in the Pathology Department of our Hospital.

Results: 34 patients with single non-functional thyroid nodule (14.9%),152 with non-toxic multinodular goiter (66.7%),26 with toxic multinodular goiter (11.4%), 6 with toxic adenoma (2.6%) και 10 with Graves disease (4.4%) were operated.In the two first groups we found respectively 11 people (32.4% of the patients with single nodule) and 21 (13.8% of the people with non-toxic multinodular goiter) with differentiated thyroid cancer. Conclusively 17.2% of the people with non-functional thyroid disorders were diagnosed with DTC. On the contrary from the 42 patients of the other three groups with hyperthyroidism only one young male with papillary carcinoma and Graves disease was detected (10% of the patients with Graves or 2.4% of the total hyperthyroid patients) (P=0.014, odds ratio 8.5).

Conclusion: The presence of hyperthyroidism in the material of our clinic possibly reduces significantly the potential of differentiated thyroid cancer appearance in comparison with the cases of single non-functional nodule and non-toxic multinodular goiter.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.