Clinical Characteristics, Thyroid Hormone Test, and Histopathological Types of Patients with Thyroid Cancer at an Indonesian Tertiary Hospital, 2019–2021: A Descriptive Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: Thyroid cancer is one of the most aggressive malignancies affecting the endocrine glands. In Indonesia, it ranks ninth among the ten most frequent classifications of cancer. Currently, there is limited data available collating the characteristics of thyroid cancer recipients in Indonesia. This study has the intention to test the clinical and demographic characteristics of recipients classified as having thyroid cancer and treated at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital between 2019 and 2021. Methods: This descriptive retrospective study used medical records of patients with thyroid carcinoma (ICD-10 code C73) treated between 2019 and 2021. Total sampling was applied, and patients with incomplete records were excluded. Data on sex, age, presenting symptoms, TSH, fT4, histopathological type, and clinical stage were summarized as frequencies and percentages with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Thirty-six patients were included. Twenty-three (63.9%; 95% CI 47.6–77.5) were female, and 24 (66.7%; 95% CI 50.3–79.8) were aged 46–65 years. A neck lump was the most common presenting symptom (97.2%). Serum TSH was within the reference range in 28 patients (77.8%). Papillary carcinoma accounted for 31 cases (86.1%; 95% CI 71.3–93.9), and 25 patients (69.4%; 95% CI 53.1–82.0) had stage I disease. Conclusion: The majority of thyroid cancer recipients treated at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital were female and inside the 46–65-year-old age group. Their thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) stages spanned 0.4 to 1.42 ng/dL and 0.74 to 1.12 ng/dL, respectively. The most frequently reported clinical symptom was a neck lump, and the predominant histopathological subclassification was papillary carcinoma. Most recipients were classified as at stage I.