Thyroid cancer in Brazil: a descriptive study of cases held on hospital-based cancer registries, 2000-2016.

Objective To describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of primary thyroid cancer hospital cases in Brazil. Methods This is a descriptive study of cases held on hospital cancer records who had their first consultation for treatment in the period 2000-2016 and who were monitored by the hospitals providing those records. Results Of the 52,912 cases, 83.4% were female and 96.9% were differentiated carcinoma cases. The median time to diagnosis was shorter for anaplastic cases (11 days) and for those living in Brazil's Southern region (5 days). Treatment was initiated within 60 days in 88.8% of cases that arrived at the hospitals without diagnosis and in 34.9% of those who arrived with diagnosis. Conclusion The findings are consistent with thyroid cancer epidemiology, with a predominance of female cases and differentiated carcinomas. Analysis of time-to-treatment suggests access difficulties for those who already had diagnosis when they arrived at the hospitals.