[The incidence and morphological aspects of thyroid cancer]

A total of 10,736 biopsy specimens presenting diverse thyroid gland pathology are studied over the period 1974 to December 1993. The histopathological investigation shows that 5.45 per cent of them (n = 585) are with carcinoma. Comparative analysis of the incidence of thyroid carcinoma in the series reviewed, covering the two decades, points to a tendency of the incidence rate to augment from 4.03 per cent in the first decade to average 6.63 per cent in the second decade of study, with a frequency peak reached in the period 1986-1993. There is a clearcut tendency of the incidence of malignant conditions of the thyroid to rise among younger age groups. A markedly expressed tendency of the number of patients with papillary carcinoma of the thyroid, affecting mainly women and younger persons, to increase is also documented.