Thyroid carcinoma--experience at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Karachi

To evaluate the frequency and types of thyroid carcinoma with respect to age and sex groups.

This was a retrospective study conducted at the Department of Pathology, Basic Medical Sciences Institute, Jinnah postgraduate medical centre Karachi. A total of 998 thyroid lesions over a period of 05 years, from July 2000 to June 2005 were reviewed. H and E slides were studied to determine the types and frequencies of malignant lesions of thyroid. Special stains were performed whenever required.

A total of 998 thyroid lesions were reviewed, of which 153 were found to be malignant. Papillary carcinoma was the commonest malignant lesion with a frequency of 90.2% followed by 4.5% medullary carcinoma, 2% follicular carcinoma, 2% undifferentiated carcinoma and 0.7% each of mixed medullary and papillary carcinoma and poorly differentiated carcinoma. Females were predominant 82.4% as compared to males 17.6% with female to male ratio 4.7:1. Maximum number of the patients were seen in 4th decade of life followed by 3rd and 2nd decades.

The commonest malignant thyroid lesion was papillary carcinoma. Thyroid cancer was more common in females. Patients of papillary, medullary and follicular carcinomas were found in 3rd and 4th decades of life while poorly and undifferentiated carcinomas were diagnosed from 5th to 7th decades of life.