The prevalence of thyroid cancer in Albania

Agron Ylli; Florian Toti; Thanas Furreraj; Gerond Husi; Evis Sinjari; Medi Shehu; Edmond Celiku

P303

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Endocrine Abstracts (2007) 14 P303

ECE2007 Poster Presentations (1) (659 abstracts)

The prevalence of thyroid cancer in Albania

Agron Ylli ¹ , Florian Toti ¹ , Thanas Furreraj ¹ , Gerond Husi ¹ , Evis Sinjari ¹ , Medi Shehu ² & Edmond Celiku ³

Err

Author affiliations

¹UHC “Mother Theresa” Service of Endocrinology & Metabolic Diseases, Tirana, Albania; ²UHC”Mother Theresa” Service of Morphology, Tirana, Albania; ³UHC”Mother Theresa” Service of Surgery, Tirana, Algeria.

Introduction: The prevalence of thyroid cancer is increasing worldwide as well as in Albania. For the first time we have created the National Thyroid Cancer Register, including the period 2000–2005.

Aim: Define the prevalence of thyroid cancer in Albanian population, the prevalence of different histopathologic forms of cancer and the probable risk factors.

Results: During this period 83 patients were diagnosed of Thyroid cancer. 62 (74.6%) were females. According to histopathologic form we found: papillary form 32 (38.6%), follicular 29 (34.9%), papillo-follicular 6 (7.3%), anaplastic 4 (4.8%), medullary cancer 4 (4.8%), other forms (metastases and lymphoma) 8 (9.6%). The clinical diagnosis at admission was: multinodular goiter 39 cases (46.9%), cold nodule 25 (30.1%), suspected thyroid cancer 11 (13.4%), toxic adenoma 4 (4.8%), benign adenoma 2 (2.4%), Graves’ disease 1 (1.2%). According to the age-group: 20–30 yrs old 12 (14.4%), 30–40 yrs 21 (25.3%), 40–50 yrs 18 (21.6%), 50–60 yrs 17 (20.4%), > 60 yrs 15 (18.3%). The papillary form was more frequent in the age group 30–40 yrs old. It was present in M/F 42.8/37%, whilst follicular form was present in M/F 14.2/41.9%.

Conclusions: The thyroid cancer in Albania is more frequent in females than in males, with a 3:1 ratio. The follicular form is more frequent in females, while in general the papillary form is the more frequent one. Almost half of our patients (46.9%) belong to the age group of 30–50 years old. More efforts have to be done for a better and faster diagnosis where the FNA could play an important role.