[Incidence of carcinoma in follicular neoplasia of the thyroid gland].

Within four years 1376 thyroid operations were performed. In 152 = 11% a follicular or oncocytic tumor was found, 20 = 13% of these were classified as carcinoma. Seven of these were of the grossly invading type, raising suspicion of malignancy already pre- and intraoperatively while 13 encapsulated tumors were found by the pathologist only. If preoperatively a cold nodule or a nodular goitre was described, the carcinoma incidence was about 16%, while warm or hot nodes showed a carcinoma in 2%. Besides tumors of < 1 cm in diameter where we found no carcinoma the size of follicular tumors had no influence on the incidence of carcinomas.