AT ENDO 2017
ORLANDO (FRONTLINE MEDICAL NEWS) – The incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States between 2000-2013 has dropped in whites while increasing in blacks and Hispanics, Anupam Kotwal, MBBS, 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 between 1974-2013 ( JAMA. 2017 Mar 31. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.2719 ).
But a closer look at that trend reveals disparities by both race and age, noted Dr. Kotwal, who is 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% from 2000-2009 (P less than .05) and 2.4% from 2010 to 2013 (P less than .05). In Hispanics and African-Americans, thyroid cancer incidence has continuously increased, with an annual percent increase of 4.7% (P less than .05) and 5.1% (P less than .05) respectively, whereas for non-Hispanic whites, the annual percent increase decelerated from 7.1% (P less than .05) before 2009 to 2.2% after 2009.
Looking at changes to incidence by age, non-Hispanic white women over the age of 75 are the only ones 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 2nd most common cancer among Hispanic females, female adolescents and young adults.
Dr. Kotwal reported that he had no relevant conflicts of interest.
