Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Differentiated adolescent and young adult thyroid cancers are under diagnosed. They would be characterized by their aggressiveness and the presence of particular histological forms. The aim of the study was to define the particular points of thyroid carcinoma in this population by analyzing the clinical, histological and therapeutic characteristics.

Materials and methods: A case-control study was conducted in the endocrinology and diabetology department of Ibn Rochd University Hospital of Casablanca between 1986-2017, including 120 cases of thyroid cancer in young adults<25 years old. The control group included 290 patients followed for thyroid carcinoma and aged between 25 and 60 years. Statistical analysis performed by the software SPSS.16

Results: Mean age of our patients was 19.3 years (15-25 years).Family history of thyroid carcinoma was found in 10 patients. The predominant mode of discovery was an isolated nodule in 67% of cases. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy with lymphnode dissection in 25% of cases. Papillary carcinoma was the histological type in all cases of young adults. Recurrences were found in 7% of cases, (locoregional recurrence (5%) and pulmonary metastases (2%) with a mean delay of 18 months. Analytical study showed that the prognostic factors as multifocality, capsular invasion and extra-thyroid extension, were significantly higher in the young group compared to the control group and that the metastasis were earlier.

Conclusion: Differentiated cancers of the young subject are more frequent and invasive. Precocity and frequency of local and distant metastases are an evidence of particularly aggressive forms as reported in the literature.