A COMPARISON OF THE HISTOLOGIC PATTERN OF BENIGN AND MALIGNANT THYROID TUMORS*

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Abstract
THE relationship between benign and malignant thyroid tumors has been for many years a subject for interesting discussion. The interest has been due largely to a common opinion that many, perhaps most, thyroid carcinomas arise from a benign thyroid tumor which pre-existed for a variable length of time before transforming itself into a cancer. The evidence for such an opinion has been mostly clinical; the pathologic demonstration of the actual transformation or transition of a benign thyroid tumor to a malignant one has not always been so clear or as acceptable. It is known that in most organs of the body benign tumors have malignant counterparts as far as histologic structure is concerned; therefore, in order to further the pathologic understanding and evaluation of thyroid tumors in general, a comparison and contrast of the histologic growth patterns of benign and malignant thyroid neoplasms seemed indicated. Such a study was carried out to determine, in addition to general information regarding thyroid tumors: 1) whether comparable histologic patterns do occur in benign and malignant thyroid neoplasms; 2) if comparable patterns occur, the relative frequency of the respective patterns in benign and malignant states; 3) the relationship, if any, of the various growth patterns to age and sex; and 4) the value of current histologic classifications of thyroid tumors.

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