[Thyroid carcinoma in children and adolescents].

Of the 720 patients with thyroid cancer we saw from 1953 to 1989, 49 were younger than 20 years at diagnosis, and the female/male ratio was 4.4:1. The histologic type was papillary in 34, follicular in 14 and medullary in 1. Initial treatment in 41 was total or near-total thyroidectomy, and in 8 hemithyroidectomy. 23 underwent neck dissection in addition to thyroidectomy. 49% of those who underwent total thyroidectomy had foci of bilateral thyroid carcinoma on serial histological section. Local and distant relapse of thyroid carcinoma occurred in 4 of the 8 who underwent hemithyroidectomy, but in only 1 of the 41 who underwent total thyroidectomy. Our recommendations include total thyroidectomy, radioiodine therapy, and modified neck dissection when neck metastases are presented.