A descriptive study of the characteristics of differentiated thyroid cancer in Catalonia during the period 1998–2012. The CECaT registry

Abstract Introduction The consortium for the study of thyroid cancer (CECaT), including 20 hospitals and one research institute, was recently created in Catalonia (Spain). One of the first initiatives of the group was to perform a descriptive analysis of the characteristics of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). Patients and methods The cohort included 1855 patients from 11 hospitals treated over a period of 15 years (1998–2012). Results In this series, 1470 (79.2%) patients were women. Mean age was 47.7 (15.7) years. Age was significantly higher in male than in female patients, 49.3 (15) versus 47.3 (15.8); p  = 0.02. Papillary thyroid carcinoma accounted for 88.9% of cases. Mean tumor size was 21.5 (16) mm, and was significantly lower in females than in males, 20.1 (14.5) mm and 26.6 (20.3) mm respectively ( p Conclusions Patient characteristics analyzed are similar to those reported in other parts of the world.