Thyroid cancer in Benin City, Nigeria: Current trend and histopathologic profile

Abstract

Thyroid cancer (TC) is a concern because of associated morbidity and mortality. This paper hopes to address its epidemiological and histopathological trend in a Nigerian tertiary care center. This is a 20-year (2000-2019)retrospective study of histopathologically confirmed TC at University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) using their age, gender, histopathological sub-type and year of diagnosis. Analysis was with SPSS version 16, and the statistical summary represented in tables and graphs. One hundred and five patients (85 males, 20 females) were encountered, within the age range of 15-82 years. The mean ages for all cases of TC, TC in males, TC in females, papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) were 39.9, 43.4, 39.0, 38.4, 44.1, and 36.7 years respectively. PTC, FTC, MTC and anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) accounted for 70.5%, 16.2%, 9.5% and 3.8% of all TC. The peak prevalence for all TC and PTC; and MTC were in the 4th and 5th decades respectively, while double peaks (3rd and 4th decades) were observed for FTC. The highest incidence for males and females were in the 3rd and fourth decades respectively. All TC, PTC and MTC incidence were on the increase during the study period while FTC incidence was on the decline. TC is more common among females with the highest incidence during the reproductive age. PTC is the commonest TC variant, and along with FTC and MTC showed a female predominance while ATC showed an equal gender distribution.//