[Struma nodosa and cancer of the thyroid]

The disputable issue of the pathogenetic relation between struma nodosa and thyroid gland carcinoma is discussed. A total of 234 patients with definitive diagnosis thyroid carcinoma, operated in the clinic of endocrine surgery--Higher Medical Institute, Sofia, are retrospectively analyzed. Clinical, past history and pathomorphologic data are considered--123 patients present papillary carcinoma, 67--follicular, and 42--mixed form. All patients undergo operative management over the period 1980 through 1991. Later, to the aforementioned group are added further 50 patients with carcinoma of the thyroid, treated from 1991 to late December 1992, and thus the total number amounts to 284 cases--153 papillary, 79 follicular and 52 mixed forms, respectively. In 67.2 per cent of the cases the thyroid carcinoma presents clinical patterns of a solitary node, in 27.8 per cent--node of multinodular struma, and in 4.9 per cent--formation associated with another thyroid disease. Multifocal location is established in five cases. As shown by the pathomorphological study in 18 per cent of the cases it is a matter of a combination--thyroid carcinoma and struma multinodosa, and in 1.2 per cent of the cases only there is conclusive evidence of solitary adenoma malignization. The obtained results lead to the inference that thyroid carcinoma deriving from the nodose structures of the gland is an exception, rather than rule.