[Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid gland (author's transl)]

Records were examined of 174 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma operated on at the 1st Department of Surgery of the University Hospital in Vienna between 1948 and 1976. The overall mortality rates amount to 20 +/- 8% after 5 years, rising to 70 +/- 21% after 20 years. Clear relationships are demonstrated between lymph node metastases, distant metastases, extrathyroid tumours and higher mortality rates. An older age correlates in the extrathyroid tumour group only with a higher risk of death. In our material reclassified by the criteria of the WHO classification (1974) between 1965 and 1976 the incidence of papillary carcinoma is 25% of all thyroid carcinomas. The incidence of this tumour subgroup varies in the literature between 25 and 90% and is influenced by regional differences in the use of childhood radiation on the one hand and iodine uptake on the other hand, different methods of thyroid examination and the subjectivity of the pathologist.