
Clinical and Genetic Studies in Familial Non-medullary Thyroid Cancer
Thyroid cancer accounts for the vast majority of all types of cancer and little is known about the possible genes that may cause the cancer. An estimated 5% of all thyroid cancers are hereditary. If three or more first-degree relatives are affected, there is a greater than 94% chance that these cases are familial non-medullary thyroid cancer (FNMTC). Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are conducting a research study to develop the best ways to evaluate, determine best screening strategy, and identify genes that may indicate vulnerability to FNMTC.