[Statistical analysis of correlations between tonsillectomy and malignant neoplasms of the thyroid].

An analysis of correlations between tonsillectomized patients with thyroid cancer and a control group with respect to sex, histological type and blood group did not throw up anything of statistical significance. Of great statistical significance, however, was the age factor in sufferers from malignant cancer, whether or not their tonsils had been removed; in fact tonsillectomized subjects were affected by malignant cancer at a younger age than those who had not undergone the operation. It is concluded that, at the moment of greatest immunological production, the tonsils seem to represent a barrier to the onset of malignant cancer in general, and thyroid types in particular.