[The diagnosis of cancer and nodular formations of the thyroid by using a mathematical table]

It is especially difficult of recognize thyroid cancer (TC) at early stages when it develops as a nodule. Cancer is often regarded as a nodular goiter, chronic thyroiditis is sometimes regarded as cancer. The authors propose for screening a mathematical table of symptoms (in points) permitting differentiation between "cancer" and "no cancer". The table is the result of computerized processing of clinical data of 417 case records of patients operated on for thyroid nodulations (cancer--in 128 patients, adenoma--in 214, chronic thyroiditis--in 75). The table is simple to use. Cancer is diagnosed with the number of symptoms being +15. This disease can be diagnosed with the help of the table in 71% of cases.