Is childhood thyroid cancer a lethal disease?

The clinical, pathological, surgical, postoperative findings and survivorship of 58 patients younger and 513 patients older than 21 years at the time of diagnosis with thyroid neoplasms are reported. The younger patients have a predominance of well differentiated carcinomas which are more likely to be follicular. The lesions tend to be more advanced at the time of diagnosis, are treated by more aggressive surgery in the younger patients and are associated with a much better prognosis. Lack of progression of well to poorly differentiated neoplasms and a greater sensitivity to and dependence upon TSH in young patients, are two factors which may contribute to the striking difference in the prognosis of well differentiated thyroid carcinoma related to age.