Descriptive Epidemiology of Thyroid Cancers in Togo

The purpose of this study was to provide epidemiological and histological data of thyroid cancers in Togo.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of cases of thyroid cancers diagnosed from 2000 to 2014 (15 years) at the pathology laboratory of the Sylvanus Olympio Teaching Hospital of Lome. All cases of review of a thyroid sample (biopsies, surgical specimens) were collected from the data records of that laboratory.

Thyroid cancers represented 1.1% (7930 cases) of all cancers registered during the study period. Mean age was 45.4±0.3 years and the proportion of females was 78.3%. We identified 92.4% carcinomas and 7.6% lymphomas. Carcinomas were well differentiated in 80 cases and were dominated by the papillary type (47 cases). Metastasis was observed in 13% of patients. The pTNM classification evaluated in 18 cases showed a predominance of grade I (13 cases). Lymphomas were dominated by lymphoma diffuse large B-cell (5 cases).

This study is the first global standard for thyroid cancer pathology in Togo. The high frequency of follicular form suggests an unrecognized iodine deficiency. The improvement of the technical platform of the LAP (immunohistochemistry) will increase the diagnosis of rare forms of thyroid cancer.