THYROID-CANCER HISTOTYPE CHANGES AS OBSERVED IN A MAJOR GENERAL-HOSPITAL IN A 21-YEAR PERIOD

The existing registries of thyroid carcinoma are seldom comparable as far as epidemiological data, diagnostic criteria and histopatological description are concerned, Epidemiological studies report a progressiv e increase in the incidence of thyroid carcinoma in the last twenty ye ars and in both sexes this increase of incidence has been referred to papillary histotype. Data collected from surgical series show a rate o f thyroid carcinomas from 7 to 20% of total thyroid surgeries. The pre sent study was designed in order to obtain a retrospective review of t he distribution of thyroid carcinoma's different histotypes in the las t 21 years in a major General Hospital, Detailed analysis of patients with histologically confirmed thyroid carcinoma admitted between 1974 and 1994 to the Surgery Department of Mauriziano Hospital of Torino, I taly showed an overall 11.8% prevalence of thyroid cancer out of the t otal thyroid surgeries. The rate of papillary carcinoma was the highes t (54.3%) followed by follicular carcinoma (27.6%), anaplastic carcino ma (11.1%), medullary carcinoma (4.6%) and others (2.4%), The papillar y-to-follicular ratio varied from 0.60 in 1974-76 to 6.88 in 1992-94. Female to male ratio of all thyroid carcinoma histotypes was 2.0 or mo re; papillary and follicular histotypes had the highest ratio. The var iations of the histotype rate observed may be consequence of the silen t increase of daily iodine intake throughout the subsequent years, whi le improved diagnostic tools available and increased experience of the medical staff have probably increased the number on thyroid ablations performed, Our data confirm the changing epidemiology of thyroid carc inoma, reported by international literature. (C) 1997, Editrice Kurtis .