Patterns of Thyroid Cancers in Southeastern Nigeria: A 15 Year Histopathologic Review (2000-2014)

Thyroid Cancer (TC) continues to be the most common endocrine cancer with a worldwide increase in incidence over the last three decades. This trend has been reported in all continents except Africa, where detection is adjudged to be insufficient, making it imperative for us to re-evaluate the patterns in our environment.

To determine the patterns of TCs in Southeastern Nigeria.

This was a 15-year retrospective review of all thyroidectomy specimens received at the Depart-ment of Morbid Anatomy, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu, Nigeria. The age, sex and histologic subtypes of diagnosed TCs were analysed using Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) Statistics for Windows, Version 18 (Chicago: SPSS Inc.) and the results were expressed in descriptive statistics.

Sixty one cases of TCs were identified in this study constituting 10.8% of thyroid biopsies received at our centre during the period under review. There were 51 (83.6%) females and 10 (16.4%) males giving a ratio of 5.1:1, and a mean age of 45.9 years. The commonest histologic type was Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC) (42.6%), followed by; follicular thyroid carcinoma (37.7%), medullary thyroid carcinoma (4.9%), anaplastic carcinomas (3.3%), Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (1.6%) and metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (3.3%). Mixed papillary/ follicular carcinoma (4.9%) and mixed papillary/ anaplastic carcinoma (1.6%) were also identified.

TC continues to predominate amongst females, occurring mainly in early middle age group in Southeastern Nigeria. PTC is now the commonest histologic type.