[On the treatment of carcinoma of the thyroid (author's transl)]

Abstract

Treatment of carcinoma of the thyroid includes, in addition to possible total surgical removal of thyroid and tumour tissue, obligatory radio-iodine treatment as well as administration of thyroid hormone in high dosage. Patients with anaplastic carcinoma as well as those with differentiated carcinoma which has broken into vessels or capsule or metastasized, are additionally given percutaneous radiation treatment. Cumulative survival rate for papillary thyroid carcinoma, treated according to this schema, was for women 95% after three years, 83% after five and 53% after ten years. Corresponding survival rates in men were 93%, 78% and 20% respectively. Rates for follicular thyroid carcinoma in women were 87% at three years, 75% at five and 50% at ten years. In men corresponding figures were 94, 77 and 50%. Dividing patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (210) into various risk groups, those with papillary and follicular carcinoma manifesting at an age under 45 years had a better prognosis than that after 45 years. Worst prognosis was with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, when survival rates at one, three and five years were 41, 28 and 18%, respectively.