Thyroid-nodules in the elderly - clinical management and incidence of malignancy as determined by fine-needle aspiration biopsy.
(2011)
Journal - Oncology reports (Greece )
Abstract :
The demographics and clinical management of nodular thyroid disease in the elderly has rarely been documented using fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). We retrospectively reviewed 100 thyroid FNABs from 88 elderly patients. All cases had surgical and/or clinical follow-up. The cases were classified as: 12 insufficient, 69 benign, 15 suspicious and 4 malignant. There were no false positives and one false negative diagnosis. Overall, 14 patients (16%) had malignant nodules, including 3 papillary carcinomas and 3 lymphomas. We conclude that because of its high diagnostic accuracy, FNAB is useful in the management of elderly patients with thyroid nodules.