Incidence of Thyroid Carcinoma in Multinodular Goiter versus Solitary Thyroid Nodule: Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Background Thyroid carcinoma (TC) is a relatively rare tumour, but it represents the most frequent form of cancer of the endocrine glands. It represents 1% of human neoplasias. Thyroid nodules are common. Palpable Thyroid nodules are found in 5% of persons aged an average of 60 years. Objective To determine the incidence of thyroid carcinoma in multinodular goiter versus solitary thyroid nodule. Patients and Methods Recent clinical trials or cluster trials, prospective and retrospective comparative cohort studies. Search results were uploaded to systematic review management software and manually screened for eligibility to be included. PRISMA flowchart was introduced on the search results and the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Results Initially, 1240 observational studies were identified through the literature search. When the duplicates were removed, 1087 remained. Eight studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and included in the meta- analysis. The study included five retrospective studies, two prospective and one Cross- sectional comparative study. The frequency of thyroid cancer among them varied from 13.7 9 to 41.4%. Conclusion To conclude, the current meta-analysis revealed that there is no difference between thyroid carcinoma in multinodular goiter and thyroid carcinoma in solitary thyroid nodule although malignancy in follicular thyroid carcinoma is higher in MNG than STN.