Twenty Years of Experience with the Preoperative Diagnosis of Medullary Cancer in a Moderately Iodine-Deficient Region

Table 1

Comparison of clinical data and ultrasonographic findings.

	Medullary cancer    (MTC)	Other carcinomas	Benign	Difference between MTC and
				other malignancies	Benign lesions
Number of patients	23	463	4,115
Sex ratio (M : F)	7 : 16	59 : 404	380 : 3,735	𝑃 < 0.05	𝑃 < 0.01
	30% : 70%	13% : 87%	9% : 91%
Median age (range) (years)	58 (20–79)	48 (16–83)	51 (12–87)
Suspicious clinical appearance	10 (44%)	122 (26%)	170 (4.1%)	n.s.	𝑃 < 0.01
Ultrasonography
Number of nodules analyzed	23	463	7695
Median volume of nodule (mL) (range)	7.31 (0.04–67.6)	1.26* (0.01–66.8)	7.41 (0.15–172.7)
Hypoechogenic nodule	23 (100%)	370 (80%)	4,374 (57%)	n.s.	𝑃 < 0.01
Microcalcifications	3 (13%)	78 (17%)	324 (4.2%)	n.s.	n.s.
Irregular borders	3 (13%)	37 (8.0%)	78 (1.0%)	n.s.	𝑃 < 0.01
Irregular patchy hyperechogenic areas	11 (48%)	4 (0.9%)	118 (1.5%)	𝑃 < 0.01	𝑃 < 0.01
Disturbed intranodular vascular pattern	1/14	31/268	60/5,425	𝑃 < 0.05	n.s.

∗Anaplastic cancer not included.