Clinical study of prevalence of malignancy in nodular thyroid swelling

Abstract

Background: Large proportion of thyroid cancers arose from a pre-existing adenoma or from multinodular goiters. Surgical practice of removing thyroid nodule or multiple nodules of thyroid gland has been challenged for surgeons to prevent cancer. Aim of this study is to find out the prevalence of malignancy in solitary thyroid nodule and multi-nodular goitre in relation to age and sex. The aim of the study was to determine the incidence of malignancy in patients who underwent thyroidectomies.Methods: Study of 100 cases of nodular thyroid swelling has been done during the period from November 2017 to November 2019 on inpatients admitted to GEMS Hospital, Srikakulam, and Andhra Pradesh, India. Detail clinical examination, relevant investigations, surgical management and histopathological reports were collected and analyzed using software package for statistical analysis (SPSS 20).Results: Out of 100 patients with thyroid swellings, thyroid malignancies constitute 4%. The occurrence of thyroid cancer was maximum in the 4th decade of life. Female patients outnumbered males with a ratio of 4:0. Relative frequency of malignancy in solitary thyroid nodule was 4.76% and in multi-nodular goitre was 3.03%. Most common histopathological type was papillary carcinoma thyroid (50%); followed by follicular carcinoma thyroid (25%) and medullary carcinoma (25%).Conclusions: The prevalence of thyroid malignancy in the present study is at an earlier age group due to early diagnosis and treatment. The prevalence of thyroid cancer is higher in female when compared to those reported in the literature. The proportion of medullary cancer is more in present study.