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. 2020 Nov 10;9(11):3617.
doi: 10.3390/jcm9113617.

Differentiated Thyroid Cancer in Children in the Last 20 Years: A Regional Study in Romania

Andreea-Ioana Ștefan  1 , Andra Piciu  2 , Simona Sorana Căinap  3 , Katalin Gabora  1 , Doina Piciu  1   4
Affiliations

Differentiated Thyroid Cancer in Children in the Last 20 Years: A Regional Study in Romania

Andreea-Ioana Ștefan et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Pediatric thyroid carcinoma is a current area of interest, because there are few studies in this field; the current classification and treatment guidelines are extrapolated from adults, sometimes leading to overly aggressive treatments or incomplete treatment of the disease. The purpose of this retrospective study is to analyze the presentation, diagnosis, treatment, complications, and outcome of children diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the last two decades (2000-2018) at the Oncological Institute "Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuță" Cluj-Napoca (IOCN) Romania, a tertiary center in a region with environmental influences from both the nuclear fallout of the Chernobyl accident and from iodine deficiency. The results were compared with those obtained in a previous study carried out in the same institution between 1991-2010, and with those obtained in a similar study carried out in Netherlands between 1970-2013, a cohort of children not exposed to the post-Chernobyl fallout. We statistically analyzed 62 patients. Papillary form was present in the majority of cases, and we highlighted the occurrence of thyroid microcarcinoma in children. A total of 85.4% of patients received radioiodine, the total activity being significantly lower compared with the data from literature. In our study, the prognosis of the disease was excellent, with 100% overall survival.

Keywords: pediatric differentiated thyroid cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Topographic distribution of thyroid cancer cases in children treated at the Oncological Institute “Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuță” Cluj-Napoca (IOCN) from 2000–2018. * The case from Bucharest comes, in fact, from the Republic of Moldova; the patient was diagnosed in a medical center in Chisinau. There the therapy was initiated, and later the family decided to move to Romania, with an official address in Bucharest, and went to IOCN to continue specific treatment.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Patient selection criteria.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Types of the first surgical intervention in differentiated thyroid cancer.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The distribution of the cumulative activity of 131-I administration (mCi/GBq).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Incidence of pediatric differentiated thyroid carcinoma at “Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuţă” Institute of Oncology (IOCN) in 2000–2018.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The distribution of the year of birth of the pediatric differentiated thyroid cancer cases in IOCN diagnosed in the period 2000–2018.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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