Adolescent versus adult thyroid carcinoma.

Several significant differences exist between adolescent and adult thyroid carcinoma. The incidence of malignancy in nodular goiter is higher in children than it is in adults. Thyroid cancer in childhood and adolescence has a slightly lower predilection for female than for male subjects, as compared to adult patients. The younger patients have a predominance of well-differentiated carcinomas which are more likely to be papillary. The lesions in the young age group tend to be more advanced locally and systemically at the time of diagnosis, but are associated with a much better prognosis. Previous irradiation to the head and neck is considered to be an important pathogenetic factor of thyroid carcinoma in children as well as in adults. The epidemiological, clinical, pathological, and surgical findings in eight patients with thyroid carcinoma younger than 20 years compared to the findings in 96 patients with the same disease older than 20 years are reported.