Use of thyrocalcitonin for the detection of familial medullary cancers in children
Calmettes, C.
Annales de Medecine Interne 135(5): 335-337
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-410X PMID: 6486612 Document Number: 230459
The preoperative diagnosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) can be made by measuring serum calcitonin levels (CT). If the patient has a thyroid nodule--sporadic or familial MTC--the serum CT will be raised but in the familial form of the disease, the diagnosis should be made at a much earlier, subclinical stage when surgery can be curative: this is possible when raised hormone levels are observed after stimulation tests. However, as this form of cancer sometimes presents late, repeated stimulation tests are necessary, with all the difficulties that it implies, in all patients with normal hormone levels in whom it is impossible to exclude tumoral heredity, whether they belong to a family with a case of sporadic MTC or to a healthy branch of a family affected by heredity.