Papillary thyroid cancer in three children.

Thyroid cancers (TC) are rare diseases in the pediatric population and represents 0.5-3% of all malignant tumors in children. Differenti-ated thyroid cancer (DTC) is a major TC in children. Every patient under 18 years of age diagnosed with a thyroid nodule should under-go a detailed medical examination. The screening test for children with an increased risk for DTC is ultrasound examination of the neck. Both ultrasound and clinical images of a tissue lesion are more important than its size. It should also be emphasized that autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT), a comorbid condition for TC, is increasingly often diagnosed in young patients. Because of the rare incidence of this kind of cancer, we present 3 case studies of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma, hospitalized in the Department of Pediatrics, En-docrinology, Diabetology, Metabolic Diseases and Cardiology of Developmental Age at Pomeranian Medical University (PMU) in Szczecin.