[Clinico-morphological features of cancer of the thyroid gland associated with goiter and its surgical treatment].

Concomitant pathology of the thyroid was established in 244 out of 533 (45.8%) patients with primary cancer of the organ. The latter group are main contributors to the increase in thyroid cancer incidence. Slow progression and low frequency of metastatic dissemination of cancer concomitant to other thyroid pathology suggest an inhibiting effect of benign tumors, toxic goiter and autoimmune thyroiditis on growth and dissemination of cancer which is, in turn, attributed to autosensitization to unaltered thyroid antigens. In regions nonendemic for goiter, examination and surgical treatment of nodular lesions of the thyroid should be carried out in specialized surgical clinics to prevent cancer or to assure treatment at early stages of the disease. Since solitary carcinomas are extremely likely to disseminate, surgery should be supplemented with regional lymph node biopsy involving intraoperative chromothyrolymphography.