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Thyroid Cancer Rate on the Rise
Reported July 16, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Studies have reported a sharp increase in
thyroid cancer since 1980. A possible explanation is increased detection
through widespread and aggressive screening, but that does not tell the
whole story.
Researchers at the American Cancer Society analyzed thyroid cancer incidence
between 1988 and 2005 using the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's)
Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) dataset. They found
incidence rates increased for all sizes of tumors, suggesting that screening
is not the only explanation for the rise.
The highest rate of increase was for primary tumors smaller than one
centimeter, which rose nearly 10 percent per year among men from 1997 to
2005, and nearly 9 percent per year from 1988 to 2005 among women. Incidence
of tumors four centimeters or larger increased more than 3.5 percent per
year from 1988 to 2005 among men, and 5.7 percent per year from 1988 to 2005
among women.
The authors suggest that other explanations, including environmental
influences and molecular pathways, should be investigated.
SOURCE: CANCER, July 13, 2009 |
