Thyroid carcinoma in Pakistan: A retrospective review of 998 cases from an academic referral center

Abstract

To address the need for epidemiologic data on thyroid carcinoma in Pakistan, we evaluated the frequency and types of thyroid carcinoma with respect to age and sex. In a a retrospective study conducted at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi, we reviewed thyroid lesions reported over a period of 5 years, from July 2000 to June 2005. Pathology slides were studied to determine the types and frequencies of malignant lesions of the thyroid. Of 998 thyroid lesions reviewed, 153 cases were malignant. Papillary carcinoma was the common- est malignant lesion with a frequency of 90.2%, followed by 4.5% for medullary carcinoma, 2% for follicular carcinoma, 2% for undifferentiated carcinoma and 0.7% each for mixed medullary and papillary carcinoma and poorly differentiated carcinoma. Females were predominant (82.4%) as compared with males (17.6%) for a female-to-male ratio 4.7:1. The maximum number of the patients were in the fourth decade of life followed by the third and second decades. The commonest malignant thyroid lesion was papillary carcinoma. Thyroid cancer was more com- mon in females. Papillary, medullary and follicular carcinomas were found in patients in the third and fourth decades of life, while poorly and undifferentiated carcinomas were diagnosed from the fifth to seventh decades of life.