The Thyroid Blog

Small Papillary Thyroid Cancer Is More Common and Not Without Risk than Previously Believed

(Oct. 5, 2007) — Patients with micropapillary thyroid cancer—small tumors equal to or less than 1 centimeter—and tumors even smaller, less than 1 millimeter (mm)—are more common and not without a risk as previously thought, according to a new study presented on Fri., Oct. 5, at the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in New York.

This is contrary to the widely perceived belief that small papillary thyroid cancers are clinically insignificant and don't require active treatment. Papillary is the most common type of thyroid cancer, accounting for about 80% of all thyroid cancers.

The findings suggest that the size of the tumor itself may not be the sole determinant for the degree of the cancer's aggressiveness.

Hopkins Researcher Links Gene Mutation with Poor Outcomes in People with Most Common Thyroid Cancer

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have found that a mutation in the gene that triggers production of a tumor growth protein is linked to poorer outcomes for patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). A report on the study is published in the December, 2005 issue of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Mingzhao Xing, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, led the multi-center study. "This discovery should help physicians rate risk levels for patients with PTC," he says.

Best Approach to Taking Out Thyroid May Be Under the Arm

The best approach to removing a diseased thyroid, the endocrine gland just under the Adam's apple that controls the body's metabolic rate, amazingly may be from under the arm, according to a study published in the August issue of the journal Laryngoscope.  

"It was simply the easiest way to take these glands out that provided a cosmetic incision," said Dr. David J. Terris, Porubsky Professor and chair of the Medical College of Georgia Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the article's lead author. "Because it requires coming from a little distance, it gives the surgeon additional perspective."

Genetic Differences Might Help Distinguish Thyroid Cancers

Two types of thyroid cancer that are closely related and sometimes difficult to distinguish can be readily identified by differences in only a few genes, new research shows.

The study, by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, used microarray analysis to show that papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) differ in the expression of only four or five genes.

Cincinnati Study of Chernobyl Residents Uncovers New Cause of Thyroid Cancer

Cincinnati University scientists studying papillary thyroid cancer in Chernobyl residents following the 1986 nuclear plant accident have identified a novel genetic mutation event that occurs as a result of their exposure to high levels of radioiodide.

Yuri E. Nukiforov led a team of researchers from both Cincinnati University and the University of Munich in identifying a novel oncogene (a mutated and/or overproduced version of a normal gene that alone or together with other changes can convert a cell into a tumor cell) in papillary thyroid carcinomas that developed in patients exposed to radiation at Chernobyl. Their results are published in the January 3, 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

How to Avoid Mistakes During Surgery

A study of Johns Hopkins surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses suggests that hospital policies requiring a brief preoperation "team meeting" to make sure surgery is performed on the right patient and the right part of the body could decrease errors.

In the study, which will appear in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Hopkins OR personnel were "very positive" about the briefings, according to surgeon Martin Makary, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Surgical Outcomes Research and lead author of the study.

"Although we lack systems for uniform reporting of wrong-site surgeries to understand the extent of the problem, we observed