[Diagnosis and treatment of malignant struma (based on 82 personal cases)].

The treatment of undifferentiated thyroid cancers differs in no way from that of other malignant tumours. An oncological resection has to be performed. As far as well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas are concerned, we have divided our cases into two groups ('low risk' and 'high risk') according to factors of age, sex and pathological type. In low-risk patients we recommend lobectomy; together with a limited homolateral neck dissection in cases of papillary carcinoma. In the high-risk group we performed a subtotal thyreoidectomy which is complemented by treatment with radioactive ioidine until a total thyreoidectomy is achieved. By following this method, nearly all our patients (77 out of 82) were still at life after 7-4 years; the exceptions were five cases of patients with anaplastic carcinoma who died within the year. In our view, such positive results justify a conservative surgical procedure.