Frequency of thyroid cancer among patients with goiter

الملخص EN

Background Thyroid diseases are common surgical problems and the incidence of malignancy is increasing particularly in patients with non-toxic goitre.

Aim To show the frequency of thyroid cancer in patients with goitre.

Materials and Methods Case Series Study of 216 patients operated upon in the period between 1992 - 2009 for non- toxic and toxic goitre in Mosul and Duhok hospitals, 172 patients with non-toxic goitre and 44 with toxic goiter.

Hyperthyroidism was diagnosed by elevated tri-iodothyroinine and thyroxin ratio and low thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH).

All patients were evaluated with ultrasound, fine needle aspiration cytology for nodular cases and some of them by scintigraphy.

Histopathology reports of patients treated surgically with a preoperative diagnosis of non-toxic and toxic goitre were reviewed to identify the thyroid cancer frequency.

Patients having a history of neck irradiation or radioactive iodine therapy were excluded from the study.

Results The incidence of malignancy was 11.6% for non-toxic goitre group and no case of malignancy was detected in toxic group.

Conclusions The incidence of malignancy in non-toxic group is increasing in contrast to toxic goitre in which no case was detected.