Thyroid cancer and the young

doi:10.1136/bmj.b3347

Published 18 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3347
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3347

Letters

Thyroid swellings

Thyroid cancer and the young

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Hatton and colleagues state that thyroid swellings are morelikely to be malignant in patients over 65.¹ However, thyroidcancer is not rare in younger age groups. Indeed, standard endocrinepractice is to regard patients under 20 as having an increasedclinical suspicion of malignancy when they present with a thyroidnodule.² In terms of rate of growth, suddenly enlarging andpainful thyroid nodules are usually benign, but aggressive thyroidcancers may occasionally be associated with both sudden growthand pain.

Patients with palpable thyroid nodules with normal thyroid functiontests should indeed be referred to a specialist service.¹

Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3347

Ian N Scobie, consultant endocrinologist¹

¹ Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham, Kent ME7 5NY

ian.scobie@kcl.ac.uk

Competing interests: None declared.

Hatton R, Patel M, Devendra D. Thyroid swellings. BMJ 2009;339:b2563. (13 July.)[Free Full Text]
British Thyroid Association, Royal College of Physicians. Guidelines for the management of thyroid cancer. 2007. www.british-thyroid-association.org/news/Docs/Thyroid_cancer_guidelines_2007.pdf