[Thyroid carcinoma in childhood].

Thyroid carcinoma in childhood is very rare. The Authors report the features of this neoplasm versus other period of the life. There were no undifferentiated type of neoplasm in 69 cases. Almost all the tumors were well differentiated epithelial types especially papillary and only few cases were non epithelial differentiated tumors. Prognosis, that is better on childhood than other ages, depends, besides surgical indications (total thyroidectomy with lymphadenectomy for epithelial types of neoplasm to metabolic radiotherapy even if metastatized. Medullary carcinoma that as after associated to other endocrinopaties has the worst prognosis; total thyroidectomy with bilateral lymphadenectomy as not enough to avoid recurrence that does not responds to complementary treatment. Thyroid surgery in the child exposes to a major risk of iatrogenic lesions than the adult because of anatomical characteristics.