Thyroid cancer rise blamed on diagnosis
Print Edition
A reported epidemic of thyroid cancer in rich countries is in fact mainly due to over-diagnosis driven by new technologies, the United Nation’s cancer research agency said yesterday.
Up to 90 percent of the thyroid cancer cases diagnosed in recent decades are, instead, tumors that are “very unlikely” to cause any symptoms or death, according to findings published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Experts from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and Italy’s Aviano National Cancer Institute combed through data collected by the UN agency from 12 high-income countries — eight in Europe, along with the United States, Japan, South Korea and Australia.
Starting in the 1980s, the highest rates of over-diagnosis occurred in the US, Italy and France, they found.
The jump in reported cases of thyroid cancer coincided with the arrival of ultrasound as a diagnostic tool, they noted. “The most recent and striking example is the Republic of Korea,” said IARC scientist Salvatore Vaccarella, who led the study.
“A few years after ultrasonography of the thyroid glands started being widely offered... thyroid cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed cancer.”
The experts estimate that 90 percent of cases in South Korea from 2003 to 2007 were due to over-diagnosis.
Thyroid cancer, which hits women far more than men, attacks the butterfly-shaped gland in the neck that produces hormones regulating how the body uses energy. Patients typically undergo partial or total removal of the gland, which can trigger chronic pain and requires hormone treatment for life.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
