Table 1.

Patient characteristics

					Before operation		After operation
Patient	Age (years), gender	Initial diagnosis	Type of MTC	Previous treatments	Basal CT	Stimulated CT	Basal CT	Stimulated CT
1	59, female	1998	sporadic	TE, ND, LE(1)	48 pg/ml	431 pg/ml	47 pg/ml	579 pg/ml
2	41, female	1989	sporadic	TE, ND, LE(2)	23 pg/ml	272 pg/ml	14 pg/ml	134 pg/ml
3	38, female	2003	sporadic	TE, ND, LE(3)	41 pg/ml	527 pg/ml	17 pg/ml	242 pg/ml
4	64, male	2004	sporadic	none	17 pg/ml	155 pg/ml	< 5 pg/ml	< 5 pg/ml
5	39, female	1994	sporadic	TE, ND, LE(5)	226 pg/ml	n.d.	7 pg/ml	26 pg/ml
6	44, male	1998	MEN2a	TE, ND	10 pg/ml	700 pg/ml	31 pg/ml	1347 pg/ml

Type of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC): MEN2a, multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2a.

Previous treatments: TE, thyroidectomy; ND, bilateral neck dissection; LE, additional cervical lymphadenectomy (number of additional LEs); CT, calcitonin.