CLINICAL CYTOHISTOPATHOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THYROID CANCER IN THE SIDI BEL ABBES REGION, WEST OF ALGERIA

Background and Objective: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy; it represents a health dilemma in the world generally and in Algeria particularly. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical cytohistopathological profile of thyroid carcinoma in a western Algerian region and to highlight the diagnosis means for the patients.

Methods: Our epidemiological retrospective descriptive study has been performed at the level of surgery department of the university hospital of Sidi Bel Abbes region (western Algeria) from 2004 to 2013 using the medical records data of patients operated of a thyroid carcinoma. All data were processed and analyzed via the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 20.0).

Results: Our report was based on 78 patients operated of thyroid carcinoma (66 females and 12 males), with a sex ratio of 5.5/1. In our investigation, the majority of patients had a uninodular goiter (55.1%). Pathology discovery method of thyroid cancer of our patients has been mentioned in three forms (self-palpation, radiologist examination and the presence of symptoms). In 33.78% of cases, malignant nodules were located at the left lobe. The malignant thyroid nodule was palpable in 81.08% of cases. In our series, five cases (8.06%) were revealed as malignant lesions by the cytological test. Concerning histological confirmation, the most predominant cancer subtype was the papillary thyroid cancer with high grade pT2N0M0 in 42.42% of cases.

Conclusion: According to our results, the thyroid carcinoma is increasingly diagnosed in young adults at different subtypes in a western Algerian region.