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Updated: Jul 24, 2025
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Published on: April 26, 2019
Incidence of medullary thyroid carcinoma and Hirschsprung disease based on the cosmos database
L A Wehrli1, M L Reppucci1, J Ketzer1
1International Center for Colorectal and Urogenital Care, Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.
Purpose:
Multiple endocrine neoplasia Type 2A (MEN2A) can occur with Hirschsprung disease (HD) due to mutation in the RET proto-oncogene, with the majority developing medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). Given the comorbidity, many parents have contacted us to share concerns and unfortunate experiences about the prevalence rates of MEN2A/MTC in patients with HD. The aim is to determine the prevalence rate of patients with HD and MEN2A or medullary thyroid carcinoma, respectively.
Methods:
This is a cross-sectional study of the COSMOS database from January 01, 2017, to March 08, 2023. The database was searched for patients diagnosed with MEN2A, MTC, and HD. IRB exemption was provided (COMIRB #23-0526).
Results:
The database contained 183,993,122 patients from 198 contributing organizations. The prevalence of HD and MEN2A was 0.00002%, and for HD and MTC was 0.000009%. One in 66 patients (1.5%) with MEN2A also had HD. One in 319 patients (0.3%) in the HD group had MEN2A. One in 839 patients (0.1%) within the HD population had MTC.
Conclusion:
The prevalence of MTC and HD or MEN2A and HD in the study population was low. Considering that almost all MEN2A patients have a positive family history, this data does not support the general genetic testing of HD patients.
