Clinicopathologic pattern of thyroid cancer cases: Experience of single institution in Jeddah

Objective: The current work was conducted to study the disease status and treatment results of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma referred for surgery and for radioactive iodine therapy. Methods: Retrospective review of 174 patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma referred for surgery and for radioactive iodine therapy in King abulaziz Hospital and Oncology Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Analysis of the clinicopathologic characteristics, age correlation to different risk factors, treatment protocol and results were performed. Results: Analysis of the clinicopathologic characrteristics showed no statistically significant difference between patients in the different age grouops except for extrathyroid extension and lymph node involvement. Patients older than 45 years had a ststistically significant lower incidence of nodal involvement and higher incidence of extra thyroid extension (<0.02). In the current study we used a high dose method(Radioiodine-131 dose 75-100mCi) for thyroid remnant ablation after thyroidectomy (total or near total) in 134 patients. An Iodine 131 dose of 150 mCi was used in 24 patients with radioiodine-avid cervical lymph nodes and 6 patient with gross residual tumor. In 8 patients with distant metastases an Iodine131 dose of 200 mCi was used. For the whole study group the 5year overall survival and disease-free survival was 96% and 88%. Conclusion: the current study, as many other retrospective studies concluded that despite the fact that differentiated thyroid carcinoma is among the most curable cancer, some patients are still at high risk for recurrent and associated mortality.