Manfred Blum, MD

Director of the NYU Thyroid Unit Dr. Blum continues to study thyroid nodules and cancer. In addition, he now participates with Dr. Martin Blaser in investigating whether the microbiome plays a role in the pathogenesis, natural history, or clinical manifestations of Hashimoto's and/or Graves' diseases.

Dr Blum has been innovative in investigating and providing a clinical service for imaging thyroid nodules to identify cancers, to localize and treat metastatic thyroid cancers with I-131 after thyroidectomy, and to diagnose and treat hyperthyroidism.
The diagnosis and treatment of thyroid tumors has evolved as a translation of advances in science and technology. Nodules are extremely common in diffusely enlarged and in normal size thyroid glands. Before the mid 1960?s clinicians erroneously acted as if many of the nodules were aggressive cancers and most patients with a thyroid mass were referred for surgery. Subsequently clinical investigation revealed that cancer was uncommon and for most patients the significant surgical risks were not warranted. It became a major challenge to identify and remove the 20,000 cancers that are seen in the United States yearly among the 5% of the population who have a palpable thyroid nodule and the 50% of people who have nodules that are detectable by ultrasound, and to avoid unnecessary surgery.
In the last 3 decades Dr. Blum's laboratory pioneered and improved imaging techniques including isotope scanning, ultrasonography, and ultrasound-guided fine-needle percutaneous aspiration biopsy to provide essential information that has allowed surgery to be restricted to the less than 1% of nodule patients who are the most likely to have cancer. Dr. Blum among was among the earliest investigators of thyroid ultrasonography in the 1970's and together with students, residents, and fellows he developed novel and clinically useful approaches to thyroid imaging, publishing 21 papers, 3 editorials, 11 textbook chapters, and 18 oral presentations at national meetings about this subject, among more than 90 publications about other Endocrine and Nuclear Medicine subjects.