The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer: May, 1996
Thyroid Cancer

• Nodules or cancer? - Although nodules in the thyroid are very common, between 4% and 7% of the population having them, less than 5% of these nodules are malignant. How should the problem of distinguishing these be approached? Addition of aspiration needle biopsy to fine-needle aspiration effected a tremendous improvement in the hands of a group at the University of Pisa in Italy, who reported their results with 1,140 patients from 1972 to 1979, and 5,403 patients between 1980 and 1992. The number of operations needed fell from 143 to 40, the number of malignancies excised increased from four to 13 per year, and the test significantly changed 79 suspicious fine needle aspiration diagnoses. (Carpi, J Clin Oncol 14:1704, 1996)