Hemangio-Endothelioma of the Thyroid Gland

Abstract

From 1909 to 1930 inclusive, 741 cases of thyroid gland disease were treated surgically at the University Hospital in Minneapolis. Among these were 11 cases of malignancy, one of which was a hemangio-endothelioma. Wilson (17) found that malignancy of the thyroid occurred in Europe in the ratio of 1: 224 necropsies, and in the United States in 1: 928. There seems to be a definite relation to the occurrence of goiter in general, for in Bern, Switzerland, where the incidence of goiter is the greatest, malignancy has been found by Muller and Spees (13) to occur in the ratio of 1: 93 necropsies. Wilson was unable to find evidence to support this hypothesis, although he stated that it might be true. Speese and Brown (14) found an incidence of 4.6 per cent malignancy among goiterous conditions in Pennsylvania, where goiter is not endemic. Of 3,389 patients operated upon in the Lahey Clinic for diseases of the thyroid gland and reported by Clute and Smith (3), 1.68 per cent presented malignancies. The highest incidence reported is 10 per cent, by Kocher (10).