Endocrine Abstracts

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, and accounts for between 5 and 10% of thyroid nodules biopsied in endocrine services. As per the Global Cancer Observatory, the incidence of thyroid cancer in Bahrain is 2.12 cases per 100 000 people, which is less than the neighbouring countries of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between thyroid cancer and obesity in Bahrain, where 28.9% of males and 38.2% of females are classified as obese. Other risk factors such as radiation exposure and genetics will not be explored from lack of data, but height and iodine concentration in the water will be explored. The study will also include the mode of presentation, histological subtypes, and management of thyroid cancer. The study is a retrospective cohort study of 179 patients who have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and discussed in the National Tumour Board from the years 2019 to 2021. Access to their E-Files was granted by the Bahrain Oncology Centre. The population consistent mostly of Bahraini females with an age range of 18–88. Most of the study population (41%) presented with an asymptomatic neck swelling which was then investigated and diagnosed as thyroid cancer. The most common histological type of thyroid cancer in our study was papillary thyroid carcinoma (88%). The TNM staging showed that most of our patients had a T1 score, with 60 having N1 score and 9 having M1. Our results show that most of the patients with thyroid cancer (n=33) had a body mass index (BMI) of 25–29.9 and only 25 patients had a BMI of 30–34.9. In previous studies obesity has been thought to contribute as a causative agent in 20% of cancers such as breast and colon. But in our study, we did not find a strong relationship between BMI and the tumour size. However, we were able to show a relationship between increasing age and metastatic disease. And finally, the vast majority of the patients in our study had BMI of overweight rather than morbid obesity. Currently, we are investigating a potential relationship between height and thyroid cancer, as well as low iodine levels in the water supply in Bahrain as possible etiological factors. Unfortunately, genetic studies are not available from our oncology service as part of the work up for thyroid cancer in Bahrain.