Descriptive Epidemiology of Thyroid Cancers in Togo

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> The purpose of this study was to provide epidemiological and histological data of thyroidcancers in Togo. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of cases of thyroidcancers diagnosed from 2000 to 2014 (15 years) at the pathology laboratory of the Sylvanus Olympio TeachingHospital of Lomé. All cases of review of a thyroid sample (biopsies, surgical specimens) were collected from thedata records of that laboratory. <br/><b>Results</b>: Thyroid cancers represented 1.1% (7930cases) of all cancers registeredduring the study period. Mean age was 45.4±0.3 years and the proportion of females was 78.3%. We identified92.4% carcinomas and 7.6% lymphomas. Carcinomas were well differentiated in 80 cases and were dominatedby the papillary type (47 cases). Metastasis was observed in 13% of patients. The pTNM classification evaluatedin 18 cases showed a predominance of grade I (13 cases). Lymphomas were dominated by lymphoma diffuse largeB-cell (5 cases). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: This study is the first global standard for thyroid cancer pathology in Togo. Thehigh frequency of follicular form suggests an unrecognized iodine deficiency. The improvement of the technicalplatform of the LAP (immunohistochemistry) will increase the diagnosis of rare forms of thyroid cancer.