文档介绍：Endocrinol Metab Clin N Am
37 (2008) xvii–xviii
Preface
Shereen Ezzat, MD Sylvia L. Asa, MD, PhD
Guest Editors
Thyroid cancer is the mon malignancy arising from hormone-
producing glands. It is one of the few cancers that are increasing in incidence
in North America, affecting mainly the young adult female population. In
the United States, thyroid cancer is the sixth mon malignancy di-
agnosed in women aged 20 to 49 years (% of incident cancers) and 58%
of subjects are younger than 50 years of age (median 46 years of age) [1,2].
The vast majority of these tumors are thyroid carcinomas derived from
follicular epithelial cells that represent a model of malignant transformation.
prise a broad spectrum of neoplastic phenotypes: well-differenti-
ated papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and follicular thyroid carcinoma
(FTC), representing more than 90% of thyroid malignancies; a cancer of in-
termediate aggressiondpoorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC),
representing almost 5% of thyroid cancers; and the rare but typically rapidly
lethal anaplastic (or undifferentiated) thyroid carcinoma (ATC).
Several ic molecular abnormalities have been associated with hu-
man thyroid carcinoma. Mouse models have verified that these ic alter-
ations are involved in malignant transformation; however, the models do
not authentically recapitulate invasive and metastatic growth. Furthermore,
genotypic–phenotypic correlations in human specimens of well-differenti-
ated thyroid carcinoma do not predict invasion or metastasis. Thus, the
large group of well-differentiated carcinomas in young patients that have
a low risk of metastasis cannot be easily separated from the rare high-risk
tumors in this population.
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xviii PREFACE
Given the increasing frequency with which small thyroid nodules are be-
ing detected by a variety of imaging modalities,