A Snapshot of Thyroid Cancer

Incidence and Mortality

The overall incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States has increased in people of all racial/ethnic groups and in both males and females over the past two decades. In 2012, it is estimated that 56,460 Americans will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and 1,780 will die of this disease.

The incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing more rapidly than that of any other cancer in both men and women. Thyroid cancer incidence rates vary by both sex and race, with incidence being almost three times higher in females than in males and nearly twice as high in whites as in African Americans. However, despite the increase in incidence, mortality rates have remained low.

Risk factors for thyroid cancer include age between 25 and 65 years, exposure to radiation to the head and neck as a child, exposure to radioactive fallout, history of goiter, family history of thyroid disease or thyroid cancer, and certain genetic conditions. There are no routine screening tests for thyroid cancer. Standard treatments for thyroid cancer include surgery, radiation therapy (including radioactive iodine therapy), chemotherapy, thyroid hormone therapy, and targeted therapy.

Trends in NCI Funding for Thyroid Cancer Research

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) investment¹ in thyroid cancer research increased from $10.9 million in fiscal year (FY) 2007 to $16.2 million in FY 2011. In addition to this funding, NCI supported $3.4 million in thyroid cancer research in FY 2009 and 2010 using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).²

Examples of NCI Activities Relevant to Thyroid Cancer

• The Radioactive I-131 from Fallout Web site provides information and resources on cancer risk associated with nuclear tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Individual Dose and Risk Calculator, which estimates I-131 exposure and associated risk of thyroid cancer for individuals who were exposed to radioactive fallout from nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
• The Radiation Epidemiology Branch of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics conducts radiation epidemiology and dosimetry studies of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident.
• The Thyroid Cancer Working Group fosters strategic research collaborations in thyroid cancer epidemiology, environmental and radiation exposures, lifestyle and nutritional exposures, molecular tumor markers, and genome-wide association studies.
• Results of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study suggest that obesity increases the risk for some forms of thyroid cancer. Ongoing analysis of pooled data from five studies will examine the relationship between body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, history of diabetes, and physical activity and the risk for thyroid cancer.
• The NCI-supported Chernobyl Tissue Bank collects, stores, and distributes to researchers tissues from patients who develop thyroid cancer following radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
• The goal of the Phase II Trial of Valproic Acid in Patients with Advanced Thyroid Cancers of Follicular Cell Origin is to determine whether valproic acid, a drug used to treat mood and seizure disorders, also will kill thyroid tumor cells, slow their growth, or increase their uptake of radioactive iodine.

Selected Advances in Thyroid Cancer Research

• An assessment of I-131 radiation dose and thyroid cancer occurrence in people who lived near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and were children or adolescents at the time of the accident revealed that their thyroid cancer risks remained elevated for two decades following exposure. Published March 2011. [PubMed Abstract]
• Results of a large cohort study showed that since 1990 there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer who received radioactive iodine therapy after surgical removal of the thyroid despite low risk of recurrence and conflicting evidence regarding the benefit of radioactive iodine therapy for these patients. Reported September 2011.
• Results of a randomized clinical trial indicated that the multitargeted drug vandetanib improves clinical outcomes in patients with a rare form of thyroid cancer. Published October 2011. [PubMed Abstract]
• A genome-wide association study of genetic variants associated with level of thyroid-stimulating hormone found that some of these variants also are associated with risk for thyroid cancer. Published January 2012. [PubMed Abstract]
• See this PubMed list of selected free full-text journal articles on NCI-supported research relevant to thyroid cancer. You can also search PubMed for additional scientific articles.