Transsternal operations in thyroid cancer.

Large thyroid carcinomas extending into the anterior mediastinum were removed from six patients by a transsternal surgical approach (partial median sternotomy). Transcervical mediastinal dissection offers obscure exposure and therefore entails the risk of the operation not being radical. The transsternal procedure was used as an alternative to remove affected lymphatic and fatty tissue from an additional nine patients. Sternal metastases were extirpated from 10 patients. Irrespective of the stage of the tumor, the indications for a transsternal approach to onocologically radical extirpation of tumors and mediastinal lymphatic fatty tissue should be more liberal, particularly with differentiated and medullary thyroid carcinomas. The prognosis for differentiated carcinomas is improved by radioiodine treatment, and optimal conditions for this therapy are ensured by the most radical possible removal of the tumor with its affected lymph nodes and sternal metastases. In the case of mixed differentiated/anaplastic and medullary carcinomas, this operative procedure ensures favorable conditions for other adjuvant forms of therapy. Although it was not possible to extend the life expectancy of patients suffering from anaplastic carcinomas, their quality of life was at least improved by the prevention of mechanical dyspnea caused by the mediastinal tumor.