Galectin-3 gene is expressed at the protein level in most papillary microcarcinomas, although with slightly lower frequency than that reported for clinically evident papillary thyroid carcinoma. The presence of galectin-3 in clinically silent microcarcinomas may indicate that galectin-3 is not related to growth or aggressiveness of papillary thyroid microcarcinomas but rather plays some other role in thyroid tumour biology.

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Familial nonmedullary carcinoma of the thyroid gland occurs very rarely.

Thyroid microcarcinoma are well-differentiated tumors less than 1 cm in diameter. A retrospective analysis was performed on patients operated of benign thyroid disease at the Center for endocrine surgery, Institute of endocrinology, Clical Center of Serbia in Belgrade, from January 1st to December 31st 2004, in order to establish the incidence of microcarcinoma. Indications for surgery were euthyroid multinodular goiter in 201 patients, thyroiditis in 31, thyroid adenoma in 178, Graves disease in 89 and Plummers disease in 79 patients. The results of this study, demonstrate that in 13.4% of the patients operated for goiter, 6.4% operated for thyroiditis, 5.6% for thyroid adenomas, 9.0% for Graves disease and 7.0% of the patients operated for Plumers disease, the presence of a microcarcinoma was noticed in the definitive histopathologic examination. The results obtained are in line with the current knowledge of high incidence of thyroid microcarcinoma.

An extremely rare case of parathyroid cancer in a hemodialysis patient is presented here. A 69-year-old man was operated on for secondary hyperparathyroidism due to chronic renal failure. A locally invasive tumor of the right inferior parathyroid gland and enlargement of the other three parathyroid glands were found during bilateral neck exploration. Surgical management consisted of en bloc resection of the right inferior parathyroid gland with the right thyroid lobe and part of a sternothyroid muscle along with subtotal parathyroidectomy of the three enlarged parathyroid glands. Histological examination of the resected tumor provided evidence of a parathyroid cancer in the right inferior parathyroid gland. Nodular hyperplasia was confirmed histologically in the other three glands. With less than 20 previous cases described in the literature, parathyroid cancer is a very rare condition in hemodialysis patients.