Clinical profile and management of primary thyroid cancer in patients with nodular goitre at the Douala General Hospital, Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction: thyroid cancer (TC) is considered to have become the fastest growing cancer in terms of incidence worldwide. Despite literature reporting a prevalence of 5-10% in clinically identified thyroid nodules, Cameroon still has limited data on the profile of TCs in patients with Nodular Goitres (NGs). The Objective were to describe the epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic profiles of TCs in patients with nodular goitres at the Douala General Hospital (DGH). Methods: this was a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of patient records with diagnoses of NGs, over 11 years (2006 to 2016) at the DGH. Results: overall, 187 patients (mean age= 46.8±13.9 years, men=27 (14.4%)) were included; 43 (23%) cancers were identified. The most common histological type was papillary cancer (50%). Nodule size of >4cm and hypoechogenicity were independently associated with malignancy. Most patients presented with TNM stage II (47.4%) and well-differentiated cancers were considered to be predominantly at low-risk according to MACIS (55%) and AMES (74%) scores. Surgery was offered to 95.3% of patients. Conclusion: TCs are frequent in patients with NGs with papillary cancer dominating. A high index of suspicion should be held if a nodule is >4cm and/or is hypoechogenic. Prognostic studies are needed to describe the outcome of TCs in our setting.