Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study was to analyse incidence trends for thyroid cancer (TC) treated at the Ion Chiricuta Institute of Oncology (IOCN), Romania.
Methods: Between 1970 and 2009, 2838 patients at our institute were diagnosed with TC, treated and followed up. We analysed epidemiological data, distribution by age groups,sex, histopathological diagnosis, treatments and 5- and 10-year overall survival rates.
Results: TC increased 10-fold in the last decade. Patients' mean age ± standard deviation (SD) was 45.6 (±27.8) years. Although women represented 88.8% and men 11.2% of these patients, men's 5-year overall survival rate (89.7%) was lower - but not significantly - than that of women's (97.9%) (p=0.435). Patients aged 46 years and older had the lowest 5- and 10-year overall survival rates (94.9 and 87.8%, respectively).
Conclusion: Aggressive histology, older age and male gender significantly influenced survival rates. The high incidence of TC underlines the necessity of having a national/ regional TC registry to improve our epidemiological data.