Thyroid cancer

An estimated 56,460 persons in the USA will be diagnosed with various forms of thyroid cancer in 2012, the ninth most commonly diagnosed cancer overall [1]. With 76 % of cases now identified in women, thyroid cancer has become the fifth most commonly diagnosed malignancy in that gender, up from the tenth most common only 10 years ago. Between 1998 and 2007, the most recent period for which Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) data are available, the average annual percent change in age-adjusted incidence of thyroid cancer in the USA-6.1 %-was the highest among all cancers [2]. Worldwide, the incidence of thyroid cancer has been increasing as well [3]. The reasons underlying this marked increase are likely multiple, with one being the increasing number of diagnoses of incidental small cancers resulting from improved sensitivity of diagnostic imaging procedures such as ultrasound [4]. Mortality rates in patients with thyroid cancer have also been rising in the USA, albeit far more slowly. Although only 1,780 deaths from thyroid cancer are expected in 2012, the average age-adjusted mortality increased 0.6 % per year between 1998 and 2007, most notably among men, who experienced a striking 1.6 % increase per year [2]. In Texas, the mortality rates have been increasing faster than those in the rest of the USA.