Effect of iodination on histological types of types of thyroid cancers in Algeria

ABSTRACT

Thyroid carcinomas differ in their prognosis by many factors including the histological type. In this study we compared two groups of patients with thyroid cancers. The first group [Nl 222 cases] was diagnosed during a period of prevalent iodine deficiency, between 1966 and 1978]. The patients in the second group [N2 142] were diagnosed with thyroid carcinoma in 2000 to 2002, ten years after the introduction of an efficient iodine prophylaxis. We noted a clear increase in the frequency of papillary carcinoma [from 37% to 68.2%], a decrease in follicular carcinoma [from 33% to 20.4%] and in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma [from 21% to 3.5%]. This change in the histological profile of thyroid carcinoma into forms with a better prognosis is an argument, with many others, in favour of iodine prophylaxis