Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Adolescent and young adult differentiated thyroid cancers are frequently under diagnosed forms. They would be characterized by their aggressiveness and the presence of particular histological forms. The aim of the study was to describe the characteristics of thyroid carcinoma in adolescents and young adults by analyzing the clinical, histological, therapeutic and evolutionary characteristics.

Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective study in Endocrinology and Diabetology department of Ibn Rochd University Hospital of Casablanca between 1986-January 2022, including 161 cases of thyroid cancer in young adults under 30 years among all thyroid differentiated cancers (927 patients). This group of patients was compared to a second one aged between 30 and 45 years (386patients). The statistical analysis was performed by the software SPSS version 25.0

Results: Mean age at diagnosis was 22.7years (10-29), with a clear female predominance (91.3%). Familial thyroid neoplasia was found in 11.8% of patients. Predominant mode of discovery was multinodular goiter suspected in 62.1% of cases and lymph node metastases in 9.3% of cases. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy associated with lymph node dissection in 21.1% of cases. Papillary carcinoma was the predominant histological type in 95% of cases. Recurrences were found in 6.1% of cases: locoregional recurrence (4.3%) and pulmonary metastases (1.8 %). The analytical study had shown that the following prognostic factors including multifocality, capsular invasion and bilaterality were significantly higher in the group of young patients compared to the older one (P<0.001), and that the occurrence of metastases were earlier

Conclusion: Differentiated cancers of the young subject are becoming more and more frequent and invasive. The precocity and frequency of local and distant metastases reflect particularly aggressive forms as reported in the literature.