Thyroid News

Adults with symptomatic benign thyroid nodules who underwent a single, monopolar radiofrequency ablation treatment in lieu of surgery experienced significant overall nodule volume reduction at 12 months with mostly minor, transient complications, according to findings from a single-center study conducted in Austria.

The early disease burden and treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma is similar in younger children and adolescents, but younger children appear to have worse outcomes, even without nodal metastases, and this may necessitate therapy intensification or tumor monitoring, according to recent findings. In the retrospective case series, Jonathan D. Wasserman, MD, PhD, a staff physician in endocrinology at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and colleagues evaluated data from 177 children aged 18 years or younger (median age, 13.82 years; 126 girls) at the time of thyroid nodule and/or malignancy diagnosis. Patients underwent thyroid nodule fine-needle aspiration biopsy or thyroid surgery between 1992 and 2012. The researchers identified cases through a review of institutional pathology databases and division of endocrinology diagnostic databases. Patient charts were assessed for 46 clinical, pathology and radiologic characteristics.

The FDA extended approval of dabrafenib plus trametinib for the treatment of patients unresectable or metastatic anaplastic thyroid cancer with BRAF V600E mutations.

Patients with autoimmune thyroiditis had higher depression and anxiety disorder scores than healthy patients, according to findings published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Transoral thyroidectomy, an alternative to traditional thyroid surgery, has gained popularity in Thailand and other Asian countries because it spares patients the neck scar.

Rescue and recovery workers who responded to the World Trade Center site after 9/11 will experience a greater cancer burden over the next 20 years than a demographically similar population, according to research published in JAMA Oncology.

Patients with nonsurgical hypoparathyroidism and pseudohypoparathyroidism report experiencing an equally impaired health-related quality of life, whereas both groups of patients experience a reduced quality of life vs. patients with diabetes, heart disease and postsurgical hypoparathyroidism, according to an analysis of questionnaire data published in Clinical Endocrinology.

Among adults with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1, or MEN1, a high fear of disease occurrence is associated with a lower health-related quality of life, according to findings from a cross-sectional study.

Among a group of euthyroid women, researchers found inversely related levels of free triiodothyronine and LDL cholesterol.

“Can I have a refill on my Armour Thyroid?” one of my patients asked.