Follicular cancer of the thyroid gland.

Between 1965 and 1987 the authors studied the survival of 169 patients (130 females, 39 males) suffering from follicular thyroid cancer. It is established that the factors favorably influencing the course of the disease are as follows: age below 40 years, female sex, tumor location inside the thyroid capsule. Radical surgery does not affect the survival, though it prolongs the time to the onset of metastases. In women below 40 years of age, iodine treatment performed within 1.5 months following surgery does not increase the effectiveness; therefore, its routine application is not recommended. In case of local metastases associated with hindered swallowing or respiration, external beam radiotherapy is indicated. Hormone substitution ensuring TSH restriction results in improved prognosis.

[Possibilities of lymphoscintillography in head and neck surgery (II): results of clinical evaluation]. / A lymphoscintigraphia fej-nyaksebészeti alkalmazásának lehetöségei (II.): a klinikai értékelés eredményei.

In order to determine the value of lymphoscintigraphy the clinical results were compared to the lymphoscintigraphic findings. The latter were further compared to the histological results and to the isotope activity of single lymph nodes. The examination was performed in 31 cases of head and neck malignancies before neck dissection (in 29 cases radical neck dissection was done because of palpable lymph nodes; in 2 further cases elective neck dissection was performed on the NO neck). Lymphoscintigraphy yielded evaluable results in 28 cases. Lymphoscintigraphy correlated with the clinical results in 21 cases. Lymphoscintigraphy, histopathology and clinical examination showed correlation in 19 cases. Further application of head and neck lymphoscintigraphy is warranted.

[Possibilities of the use of lymphoscintigraphy in head and neck surgery: introductory studies]. / A lymphoscintigraphia fej-nyaksebészeti alkalmazásának lehetöségei: bevezetö vizsgálatok.

The results of a pilot study of head and neck lymphoscintigraphy are presented. The study was performed in 35 cases with technetium-99m-labelled microcolloid. The scintigraphic observations of the intact and tumorous neck are presented. The results of this pilot study suggest that this method might create the base of a nonspecific additional diagnostic tool.

[Follow up of thyroglobulin levels in patients with surgically treated, highly differentiated thyroid cancer]. / Magasan differenciált pajzsmirigyrák miatt mütött betegek követése thyreoglobulin szint meghatározással.

The highly differentiated thyroid tumours account for 0.80 percent of all human malignancies. The papillary and follicular tumour tissues of this tumour type are relatively benign, hormone dependent and beside their treatment specificity they secrete the tumour specific thyreoglobulin. Thus it becomes possible to follow the development of metastases, the effectiveness of therapy applied as well as the history of the disease. The authors studied the change of thyreoglobulin level in 153 patients with highly differentiated thyroid cancer. In 29 of 32 metastatic patients pathologically elevated (70 to 100 ng/ml) thyreoglobulin level was observed. This proves the 91 percent specificity of the method in verified metastatic tumours. Compared to the total body scintigraphy 3 false negative cases were found. The authors establish that, irrespective of the site of metastasis, the thyreoglobulin level is higher in the follicular than in the papillary subtype. It is concluded that the measurement of the serum thyreoglobulin level is a suitable marker of the highly differentiated thyroid cancer since it represents the local recurrence of distant metastases with a significant increase while the therapy-resultant tumour diminution with a marked decrease, respectively.

Postoperative thyroglobulin level determination to follow up patients with highly differentiated thyroid cancer.

The highly differentiated thyroid tumours account for 0.80% of all human malignancies. The papillary and follicular tumour tissues of this tumour type are relatively benign, hormone-dependent and beside their treatment specificity they secrete the tumour-specific thyroglobulin. This it becomes possible to follow the development of metastases, the effectiveness of therapy applied as well as the history of the disease. The authors studied the change of thyroglobulin level in 153 patients with highly differentiated thyroid cancer. In 29 of 32 metastatic patients a pathologically elevated (70-100 ng/ml) thyroglobulin level was observed. This proves the 91% specificity of the method in verified metastatic tumours. Compared to the total body scintigraphy 3 false-negative and 6 false-positive cases were found. The authors establish that, irrespective of the site of metastasis, the thyroglobulin level is higher in the follicular than in the papillary subtype. It is concluded that the measurement of the serum thyroglobulin level is a suitable marker of the highly differentiated thyroid cancer since it indicates local recurrence or distant metastases by a significant increase while therapy-resultant tumour diminution is accompanied by a marked decrease.

Perspectives in scintigraphic detection of gynecologic tumors using labeled estrogen.

After having succeeded in imaging the prostate with 131I-Estracyt in our former experiments we tried to use the same method for scanning gynecological tumors. In about fifty per cent of the patients (34 cases) there was a convenient accumulation of the labeled estrogen, first of all the adenoid tumors, myomas of uteri and carcinomas can take up this radiopharmacon. Though the number of cases is rather low it is to be concluded that tumors of hormonal dependence can be scanned using estrogen hormon. Further investigations are in progress.