Israr Ahmed, Muhammad Latif Malik, Muhammad Ashraf.
Pattern Of Malignancy in Solitary Thyroid Nodule.
Biomedica Jan ;15:39-42.

In 80 cases of clinically solitary thyroid nodules, incidence of cancer was 23.7%. Papillary carcinoma constituted 57.9% of the malignancy, follicular carcinoma was, 21%, anaplastic carcinoma was 15.78% and lymphoma 5%. Malignancy was found in 27.4% of solid cold nodules and 8.3% of the cystic nodules and 16.67°k of mixed nodules. In males 31°k of nodules were malignant compared with 21% in females. Of malignant cases 42.1% were below the age of 30 years and 57.9% of cases were seen after the third decade of life, 21.05% of nodules found in patients below the third decade were malignant compared to 29.03°k between the age group 31 50 year and 18.1% in the age group above 51 years. Fine needle aspiration was effective in defining the nature of lesion in 80% of cases. This facility should always be made use of in deciding about treatment of solitary thyroid nodule. As not an insignificant member of solitary thyroid nodules turn out to be malignant and fine needle aspiration cytology yields fairly accurate result in differentiating a neoplastic lesion from a non-neoplastic lesion these two features should make an important guiding principle in the treatment of solitary thyroid nodule. Hemithyroidectomy rather than nodulectomy should be mainstay of treatment. This surgery is adequate for all benign lesions as well as intra thyroid papillary lesion below the age of 40 years.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com