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Increasing incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer in South East England: 1987–2006

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Abstract

There has been a worldwide increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer (TC). Documenting these recent trends is of immense value to cancer control measures, monitoring policies, improving clinical outcomes, resource allocation and stimulating research. Hence this study aimed to analyse the changes in incidence, staging and morphologic types of TC in South East England (1987–2006) by means of a retrospective, descriptive epidemiological study using anonymized data obtained from the Thames Cancer Registry (TCR) of all patients registered with TC in the period 1987–2006. Ethical approval was obtained from the Kent Research Ethics Committee. 4,880 anonymized datasets using the ICD-10 code for thyroid cancer (C73) were analyzed using SPSS v.17. TC was commoner amongst females 3,560 (73%) than males 1,320 (27%) with a 2.7:1 ratio. Mean age at diagnosis was 53 years (Range 5–99) years. An increasing incidence trend was observed in early stage disease (p < 0.001), in young adults aged ≤49 years (p < 0.001) and in well-differentiated TC (papillary p < 0.001 and follicular p = 0.03). The results showed that TC is commoner in females than males in SE England with a 2.7:1 ratio. The results also indicate that TC incidence has increased in SE England over the 20 years studied, with the greatest increase occurring in early stage disease, in females, young adults and well-differentiated types (papillary and follicular). This may be due to widespread usage of ultrasound with detection of incidental nodules. Further studies are required to explain the trend.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Thames Cancer Registry London for providing the anonymized dataset on thyroid cancers in SE England over this study period. In particular, our appreciation to Vivian Mak (Information team leader) and Tom Massey (Information analyst). We also acknowledge the Public health department of the University of Liverpool UK, as the initial thesis which laid foundations for this work was part of the Laureate Masters in Public health programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK

    Oladejo Olaleye & Ram Moorthy

  2. Nephrology Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo, Nigeria

    Udeme Ekrikpo

  3. School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Owen Lyne

  4. Department of Public Health and Laureate Online Studies, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Jill Wiseberg

  5. Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, Kent, UK

    Myles Black & David Mitchell

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  1. Oladejo Olaleye
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Correspondence to Oladejo Olaleye.

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Olaleye, O., Ekrikpo, U., Moorthy, R. et al. Increasing incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer in South East England: 1987–2006. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 268, 899–906 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-010-1416-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-010-1416-7

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