Thyroid cancer incidence and clinicopathological distribution in bariatric surgery cases

Aim: Obesity is strongly associated with increased risk of many cancer types. It is estimated that approximately 20% of all cancers are caused by overweight. It is considered that there is a direct relation between overweight and thyroid cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence and clinicopathological distribution of thyroid cancer in bariatric surgery cases. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted with a total of 2316 patients who underwent bariatric surgery because of morbid obesity in our metabolic and bariatric surgery clinic between April 2014 and November 2021. Results: It was found that the prevalence of thyroid cancer was 1.2% in morbidly obese cases. A total of 23 patients had papillary thyroid cancer (0.99%), 3 patients had follicular cancer (0.12%), 1 patient had medullary cancer (0.04%), and 1 patient had anaplastic cancer (0.04%). Conclusion: It was found in the present study that the most common cancer type was thyroid papillary cancer, and follicular, medullary, and anaplastic cancer were found to be less frequently. There appears to be a relation between Body Mass Index and the thyroid cancer risk.