Abstract

Papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) are well differentiated malignante pithelial tumors with characteristic nuclear features and they originate from epithelial cells of thyroid follicle. Papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most common type of thyroid cancers, which composes 85-90% of all thyroid carcinomas. Number of patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer has significantly increased during the last two decades due to increased awareness of nodular thyroid diseases, developments in diagnostic methods, wide applicability of thyroid fine needle aspiration, new descriptions of histopathology criteria and increased radiation exposure. It is more common in males than females with some ethnic variations. Although it is very rare during early childhood, it is the most common thyroid cancer of this age group. The mean age is 46 years at the time of diagnosis. Tumor has some histologic variants, the most common ones are being classical and follicular variants.