Thyroid cancer incidence: It’s not all good news

The incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States between 2000 and 2013 has dropped in white population while increasing in black and Hispanic population, as said during a press briefing at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

Other recently reported data have shown a steady gradual incidence in thyroid cancer from (1974 to 2013).

However, a closer look at the trend reveals disparities by both race and age, noted by an endocrinology fellow at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

From 2000 to 2013, the incidence of thyroid cancer as a whole increased from 7.4 to 14.5 cases per 100,000 population with an annual percent increase of 6.7 percent from 2000 to 2009 (P less than .05) and 2.4 percent from 2010 to 2013 (P less than .05). In Hispanic and African Americans thyroid cancer incidence has continuously increased, with an annual percent increase of 4.7 percent (P less than .05) and 5.1 percent (P less than .05) respectively, whereas, for non-Hispanic whites, the annual percent increased decelerated from 7.1 percent (P less than .05) before 2009 to 2.2 percent after 2009.

With regard to changes to incidence by age, non-Hispanic white women over the age of 75 are the only one to see a decrease, from 6.5 cases per 100,000 in 2010 to 2.4 cases per 100,000 population in 2014. The investigations reported the same acceleration of incidence among everyone under the age of 20 years.

These findings are consistent with recent reports demonstrating that thyroid cancer is the most common cancer among Hispanic females, female adolescents, and young adults.