Introduction:

Thyroid cancer is the most frequent malignant neoplasm of the endocrine system. During the last decades, an increase in its incidence has been observed progressively in many countries and regions of the world.

Objectives:

To determine the prevalence of thyroid cancer and its histological types in thyroidectomies carried out in reference hospitals in Paraguay.

Materials and methods:

Observational, descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study. All patients undergoing partial or total thyroidectomy at the Hospital de Clínicas, Instituto de Previsión Social and Instituto Nacional del Cáncer between 2011 and 2015 were included.

Results:

The prevalence of thyroid cancer was 23.7% of 1913 patients undergoing thyroidectomy. 85.7% were female. The mean age was 43 ± 14 years. 85.4% of the patients presented Papillary Carcinoma; 9.5% Follicular Carcinoma; 3.1% Medullary Carcinoma; 1.6% Anaplastic Carcinoma and 0.4% Papillary Carcinoma + Follicular Carcinoma in the same patient. The mean age of the patients with Papillary Carcinoma was 42 ± 13 years, Medullary Carcinoma 49 ± 15 years, Follicular Carcinoma 50 ± 18 years, and Anaplastic Carcinoma 69 ± 11 years. The average size of Papillary Carcinoma was 19 ± 17 mm, Medullary Carcinoma 40 ± 22 mm, Anaplastic Carcinoma 50 ± 35 mm, and Follicular Carcinoma 53 ± 24 mm.

Conclusion:

About 1 in 4 patients undergoing thyroidectomy has thyroid cancer, it is more frequent in women, and the most frequent histological type is Papillary Carcinoma.

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