Research Article Patterns of Benign and Malignant Lesions of the Thyroid in Two Wilayahs of Northeastern Algeria Mona Guidoum, 1 Hind Kherfi-Kadi, 2 Ouahiba Benharkat-Boughaba, 3 Aicha Djemaa-Bendjazia, 4 Sihem Keghouche, 5 Behnoush Abedi-Ardekani, 6 Amina Azzouz, 1 Yacine Kadi, 2 Pierre Hainaut, 7 and Zihad Bouslama 1 1 Research Laboratory “Ecology Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems” (EcoSTAq), Team “Emerging Diseases and Environment”, University Badji Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria 2 Central Laboratory Pathological Anatomy, EPH, El-Taref, Algeria 3 Central Laboratory Pathological Anatomy, EPH, Ibn Zohr, Guelma, Algeria 4 Head Radiotherapy Oncology, Hospital Ibn Badis, University 3, Constantine, Algeria 5 Nuclear Medicine Department, Hospital Ibn Badis, University 3, Constantine, Algeria 6 International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France 7 Institut Albert Bonniot Inserm UJF 823, Grenoble, France Correspondence should be addressed to Pierre Hainaut; pierre.hainaut@ujf-grenoble.fr Received 14 May 2015; Accepted 29 September 2015 Academic Editor: Subhojit Dey Copyright © 2015 Mona Guidoum et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. he aim of this study is to compare histological patterns and to estimate the burden of thyroid cancers in the two Wilayahs (departments) of El-Taref and Guelma in northeast of Algeria (total population 0.9 million), locally reputed as having diferent rates of endemic thyroid diseases and cancer. A retrospective analysis of central pathology registers and clinical records of patients with thyroid diseases, covering the period 2008–2012, was conducted. A total of 145 cases of thyroid cancers with histological conirmation were registered in the two Wilayahs during the period, with a female to male ratio of 5.9 : 1. Estimates of crude incidence rates suggested that thyroid cancers were twice as frequent in the Wilayah of Guelma compared to El-Taref ( < 0.05) with a tendency to occur at a younger age in resident of the Wilayah of El-Taref. Diagnoses of thyroid adenoma were more frequent in the Wilayah of Guelma, whereas the prevalence of other thyroid lesions, including goitre, was similar in the two Wilayahs. his irst descriptive study on geographic variations in thyroid cancer in Northern Africa suggests that signiicant diferences may occur in relation with environmental and lifestyle exposures. 1. Introduction Worldwide, thyroid cancer (TC) accounts for about 1–5% of all cancers. Incidence rates are consistently higher by 3–7-fold in females than in males and range from less than 1 per 10 5 person-years (in sub-Saharan African males) to over 10 per 10 5 person-years (in Caucasian North American females) [1]. TC is classiied in distinct histological subtypes, including papillary (PTC), follicular (FTC), modularly (MTC), poorly diferentiated (PDTC), and anaplastic (ATC) carcinomas [2]. In recent years, a sharp and signiicant increase in rates of TC has been observed in most parts of the world, in particular in western countries and in Asia, where in some places incidence rates have been near-doubled over the past decade [3]. here is debate as whether this increase relects greater awareness and more extensive diagnosis or profound changes in the distribution of risk factors that may play a role in TC [3, 4]. Risk factors for TC include exposure to radiation, diabetes and obesity, tobacco smoking, and chronic diseases of the thyroid caused by iodine deiciency, autoimmune conditions (Grave’s disease), or inlammatory diseases [4–7]. About 25% of MTC occur in a familial setting in subjects with mutations in the RET gene that predisposes to Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type IIA (MENIIa) [5, 8]. Furthermore, a recent study of the risk of TC in a population-based cohort in ive Nordic European countries has identiied a threefold increase Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Cancer Epidemiology Volume 2015, Article ID 849416, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/849416