Thyroid pathology in four patients with Cowden's disease

Cowden's disease (multiple hamartoma syndrome) is a rare genodermatosis, which carries an increased risk of malignancy, especially breast and thyroid carcinoma. Thyroid disease is the most common internal manifestation of the syndrome, but the histological features in benign cases have hitherto been relatively poorly described. Thyroidectomy specimens from four patients with Cowden's disease have been reported in our laboratory in recent years. A number of rather distinctive features were common to all, raising the possibility of a distinctive 'Cowden's thyroid' phenotype.