Pediatric Thyroid Cancers: An Indian Perspective

Pediatric thyroid cancer is a rare entity accounting for less than 5% of all thyroid cancers. This intriguing disease is characterized by advanced presentation, coupled with frequent lymph nodal metastases and often pulmonary metastases. It perhaps exhibits a distinct biology and behaviour, because in spite of its aggressiveness, survival is extremely good. This mandates meticulous treatment decisions that are well executed, because the complications of therapy in patients with good survival may spell prolonged morbidity. Being an unusual disease, it is unlikely that level I evidence guiding the management will come forth. There have been controversies regarding management, and the current consensus comes from large prospective studies. There have been only a few studies from India detailing pediatric thyroid cancers. In the current discussion, we review the existing evidence about pediatric thyroid cancers, and try to have an Indian perspective at the problem.