[Clinical experience in Hurthle cell tumors]

In the period 1987-1997 6 patients with Hürthle cell carcinomas and 4 patients with Hürthle cell adenomas underwent primary surgical treatment (8.1% of all thyroid carcinomas). The diagnosis of Hürthle cell tumor was based on the presence of more then 75% Hürthle cells and the malignity on capsular or/and vascular invasion. All the patients with Hürthle cell cancer underwent total thyroidectomy, in three cases with Hürthle cell adenoma thyroid lobectomy was performed and in one case total thyroidectomy. Follow-up time ranged from 1 to 8 years after surgery (mean 4.5 years). There was no death and no recurrence. The Authors have studied the nuclear DNA content in Hürthle cell tumors: 3 adenomas were euploid and 1 was aneuploid, 4 carcinomas were aneuploid and 2 were euploid. The results in Authors' study of the DNA content and nuclear DNA ploidy are not uniformly consistent enough to allow a distinction between benign and malignant neoplasms and to evaluate the prognosis, but the number of patients and the follow up are still too limited.