Thyroid Cancer in Western Algeria: Histopathological and Epidemiological Study

Thyroid cancer is relatively rare, about 1% of all cancers combined. However, it accounts for 88% of all cancers of the endocrine organs. In recent years, the incidence of thyroid cancer has increased considerably compared to other types of endocrine cancers. The aim of our work is to study the epidemiological profile of thyroid cancer in the western part of Algeria and to determine the influence of sex, age and histological type. Patients and methods: Our study focuses on 1376 cases of thyroid cancer in patients attending the nuclear medicine department at the university hospital of Tlemcen over a period of 3 years, from 2013 to 2015. The average age of patients is estimated at 43. Each patient underwent an anatomo-histopathological examination of the surgical specimen. The data entry is done through the SPSS 20 statistical software. Results: The rates of the thyroid cancers listed during the three years of studies (2013-2014-2015) are 32.12%, 34.44% and 33.43% respectively. Our study shows that the female sex is largely incriminated (94.75%) compared to the male sex. The age group mostly affected was that ranging from 40 to 60 with 45.88%. The anatomo-histopathological analysis revealed that the papillary carcinoma is the most frequent histological type with 85.47% followed by the vesicular carcinoma with 14%, the medullary cancer MTC with 0.43%, and finally the anaplastic carcinoma with 0.07%. Conclusion: the epidemiological surveillance contributes to a better knowledge of thyroid carcinoma allowing a good patient management in Algeria. Early detection of small size cancers and the use of high-performing technologies will result in a decrease of the mortality rate associated to this type of cancer.