In 1977, within the Institute of Clinical Methodology and Occupational Medicine, the Tuscany Region established the Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Goitre, which included a Nuclear Medicine Service dedicated to thyroid diseases. The availability of nuclear medicine support facilitated the gradual development of clinical activity, and the availability of radionuclides, in particular 131I, made it possible not only to diagnose thyroid diseases but above all to provide radiometabolic treatment, in particular of differentiated thyroid tumours.
The subsequent development of what had by then become the Institute of Endocrinology (from 1984) led the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1995, to award it the title of Reference Centre for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thyroid Cancer and Other Thyroid Diseases (WHO Collaborating Center for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thyroid Cancer and Other Thyroid Diseases), in recognition of its leading role in the study of thyroid carcinoma induced by the radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Among the various tasks entrusted to the centre are participation in the committees of the WHO and other international agencies for the prevention of the harmful effects of radiation from nuclear accidents, and the coordination of interdisciplinary studies on thyroid cancer and other radiation-induced thyroid conditions.
The subsequent increase in the number of thyroid carcinoma cases referred to the Department of Endocrinology (now over 4500 cases) created the need to set up, from November 1999, an outpatient clinic dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid tumours. Because of the steady increase in requests and the need to follow diagnosis and treatment of this disease in an integrated way, a Day Hospital (DH) service was also set up a few months later. From 2000 to 2002, the head of the Oncology Section was Prof. Furio Pacini; since 2002 this role has been entrusted to Dr. Rossella Elisei, who works with a group of doctors, specialists or specialty trainees, dedicated to this specific field. The working group of the Oncology Section also includes dedicated biologists, technicians and nurses.