Diagnostics of Thyroid Malignancy and Indications for Surgery in the Elderly and Younger Counterparts: Comparison of 3,749 Patients

Background. It seems valuable for clinicians to know if diagnostics of thyroid malignancy (TM) and indications for surgery in the elderly patients differ from these in younger counterparts. Materials and Methods. Retrospective analysis of the medical records of 3,749 patients surgically treated for thyroid tumor. Data of patients with histopathology confirmed TM (n=309) were studied. Results. The rate of cytological prediction to malignancy was more than three times higher in elderly women. Compression was a main reason for surgery in the elderly (p<0.0001). The final diagnosis of malignancy was significantly higher in older women (p=0.002). Clinical suspicion of malignancy was positively correlated with histopathological diagnosis in total group of women (r=0.543, p<0.001) and total group of men (r=0.560, p<0.001). The subgroup of the eldest TM patients included a significantly higher number of subjects with advanced cancer and primary tumor progression (p