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
