This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Increased incidence of thyroid cancer tumors of all sizes

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Thyroid cancer tumors of all sizes increased in men and women between 1988 and 2005, according to data analyzed from the SEER database.

Previously, increased incidence of thyroid cancer was attributed to greater use of ultrasound, which detects smaller-sized tumors. However, findings demonstrated increased incidence for all tumors sizes, according to researchers.

They examined data from 30,766 participants with differentiated thyroid cancer using joinpoint regression by age, race, sex, tumor size and SEER stage. Trends were reported as annual percentage change (APC). Twenty-five percent of tumors were <1 cm; 42% were from 1 cm to 2.9 cm; 9% were from 3 cm to 3.9 cm; 11% were ≥4 cm; and 12% had unknown measurements.

Thyroid cancer occurred most frequently in whites (n=83%), those aged younger than 45 (48%) and women (76%).

Among women for the period of 1988 to 2005, increased incidence was observed for tumors that measured <1 cm; the APC was 8.6 (95% CI, 7.8-9.5). For 1994 to 2005, tumors 1 cm to 2.9 cm had an APC of 6.3 (95% CI, 5.3-7.4). Tumors 3 cm to 3.9 cm had an APC of 4.4 for 1988 to 2005 (95% CI, 3.2-5.7) and those ≥4 cm had an APC of 5.7 (95% CI, 4.5-6.9).

Among men, the incidence rates increased in tumors that were <1 cm (APC for 1997 to 2005=9.9; 95% CI, 7.3-12.7); 1 cm to 2.9 cm (APC for 1988 to 2005=5.5; 95% CI, 4.2-6.8); 3 cm to 3.9 cm (APC for 1988 to 2005=2.7; 95% CI, 1.2-4.2); and ≥4 cm (APC for 1988 to 2005=3.9; 95% CI, 2.9-4.9).

Although the rates of diagnosis increased, the mortality rates remained the same. Incidence rates were similar between blacks and whites yet increased according to SEER stage for localized, regional and distant stage in men and women.

“Our finding that even the largest tumors and tumors with distant spread of disease had an increasing incidence trend suggests that other reasons for this increase, including environmental, dietary and genetic causes, need to be explored,” the researchers wrote.

Chen AY. Cancer. 2009;doi:10.1002/cncr.24416.