[Clinical signs in medullary cancers of the thyroid]

Medullary thyroid carcinoma is diagnosed with difficulty and at an advanced stage as a consequence of its rarity and its relatively recent knowledge. Therefore, the extent of the disease is already important at the therapeutic stage and the chance of cure is poor. One hundred and thirty four cases treated in the Gustave Roussy Institut (Villejuif) and the Jean Godinot Institut (Reims) between 1942 and 1983 have been studied retrospectively. One hundred and seventeen of them diagnosed after 1960 have been analyzed. We have pointed out the clinical features which should lead to diagnosis and with present means should assure it with the minimum of delay. We have outlined the multiple endocrine neoplasia syndromes IIa and IIb and repeated the necessity of clinical and biological familial screening, 11 per cent of cases are inherited.