Histopathological Patterns of Thyroid Neoplasms in Ibadan Nigeria: A Twenty Year Retrospective Study

Background: The thyroid gland is an endocrine organ which has an important function in regulation of physiological functions of normal body metabolism. Thyroid neoplasms are usually presented with palpable solitary or multiple nodules. This retrospective study aimed at describing the histopathological patterns of various thyroid neoplasms at the Pathology Department, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan between 1987 and 2006.
Methods: We reviewed 174 cases with thyroidectomy and diagnosed thyroid neoplasm. We evaluated heamatoxilin and eosin stained slides retrieved from the records of the department and the population based cancer registry and where necessary the paraffin blocks were recut and stained. The World Health Organization Histological Classification of Thyroid tumour (2004) was used in this study.
Results: A total 74,202 biopsies were received in the department over the study period. 1,207 cases were thyroidectomy specimens constituting 1.6% of all biopsies in the study period. 174 cases (14.4%) were thyroid gland neoplasms 122 (70.1%) of which were females and 52 of which (29.9%) were males. The ratio of female to male is 2.3:1. Seventy six (43.7%) cases were benign and 98 (56.3%) cases were malignant. Follicular adenoma accounted for 89.5% of benign thyroid neoplasms which makes a peak in the 5th decade. Papillary carcinoma was the most common malignant thyroid neoplasm in this study with a peak in the 3rd decade.
Conclusion: This study showed that thyroid neoplasms were showing female predominance. The most common benign neoplasm was follicular adenoma and the malignant neoplasm was papillary carcinoma.