Thyroid Cancer: Overview, Incidence, Prognosis, and Subtypes

Apuntes

Thyroid Cancer A Review Laura Boucai, MD; Mark Zafereo, MD; Maria E. Cabanillas, MD Approximately 1.2% of people in the United States will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer at some point during their lifetime and about 43 720 new cases of thyroid carcinoma are anticipated in 2023. 1 The incidence of thyroid cancer has increased by 313% in the past 4 decades, mainly due to increased detection from the widespread use of imaging stud- ies and the introduction of fine-needle aspiration biopsies. A change in tumor biology with increased incidence of advanced- stage thyroid cancer (3.5% increase per year since 1981) may also partially explain this trend. 2 Although thyroid cancer is common, the 5-year relative survival, a weighted average of all stages of the disease, is high (98.5%) with approximately 2100 thyroid cancer deaths estimated per year in the US. 1,3 The recognition of the indolent course with an excellent prognosis in most cases has resulted in recommendations against screening, thereby mitigat- ing overdetection. Papillary thyroid carcinoma accounts for approximately 84% of all thyroid cancers. Papillary, follicular (≈4%), and oncocytic (≈2%) are termed well-differentiated t...