2-MUTATIONAL-EVENT THEORY IN MEDULLARY-THYROID CANCER

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  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 31  (6) , 704-710
Abstract
Comparisons are presented of the ages of onset of 20 cases of hereditary medullary carcinoma of the thyroid (MCT) and 22 sporadic cases of this same type of cancer. These data are compatible with what might be expected by the 2 mutational-event theory of the initiation of cancer postulated by Knudson. C[calcitonin-secreting]-cell hyperplasia of the thyroid may be a premalignant change resulting from the 1st or genetic mutational event in the initiation of this type of cancer. The finding of C-cell hyperplasia in thyroid glands of each of the 10 patients with the hereditary condition and in none of the 10 sporadic patients is compatible with this theory. The C-cell hyperplasia is believed to be the expression of the genetic mutation, which requires a subsequent somatic mutation to transform the initially mutated cell into a cancer cell.