Epidemiology

• more common in women
• thyroid cancer incidence is strongly related to age, with the highest incidence rates being in older people. In the UK in 2013-2015, on average each year more than a tenth (12%) of new cases were in people aged 75 and over
  
  
• thyroid cancer incidence rates in females are highest overall in younger and middle-aged women - a different pattern to male thyroid cancer, and to most cancers
  • age-specific incidence rates in males rise gradually from around age 10-14, before dropping in the oldest age groups
  • rates in females rise sharply from around age 10-14, reaching a peak at ages 35-39, then decline steadily, then drop sharply from age 80-84
  • highest rates are in the 70 to 74 age group for males and the 35 to 39 age group for females
  • incidence rates are significantly lower in males than females in a number of (mainly older) age groups. The gap is widest at age 20 to 24, when the age-specific incidence rate is 4.8 times lower in males than females
    
    
• thyroid cancer is considerably more common among young women than other head and neck cancers
• presenting features of thyroid cancer:
  • thyroid lump - 60%
  • discomfort in lower neck - 80%
    
• are around 3,900 new thyroid cancer cases in the UK every year, that's 11 every day (2016-2018)
• is the 20th most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 1% of all new cancer cases (2016-2018)
• in females in the UK, thyroid cancer is the 17th most common cancer, with around 2,800 new cases every year (2016-2018)
• in males in the UK, thyroid cancer is the 20th most common cancer, with around 1,100 new cases every year (2016-2018)
• incidence rates for thyroid cancer in the UK are highest in people aged 65 to 69 (2016-2018)
• thyroid cancer incidence rates in England in females are similar in the most deprived quintile compared with the least, and in males are similar in the most deprived quintile compared with the least (2013-2017).
• incidence rates for thyroid cancer are higher in the Asian and Black ethnic groups, but lower in people of mixed or multiple ethnicity, compared with the White ethnic group, in England (2013-2017)
• an estimated 22,900 people who had previously been diagnosed with thyroid cancer were alive in the UK at the end of 2010

Almost all thyroid cancers (about 97%) are differentiated and have a good prognosis (3)

Thyroid cancer is usually treated by partial (hemi-) or total thyroidectomy, sometimes followed by radioactive iodine (3)

Once thyroid cancer has been treated, there is still a chance it might recur (3)

• recurrence is uncommon in well-differentiated cancers, but it can be more serious than the original occurrence

Reference:

1. NICE (November 2004). Improving outcomes in head and neck cancers - The Manual
2. CRUK. Thyroid Cancer Statistics (Accessed 21/12/22)
3. NICE (December 2022). Thyroid cancer: assessment and management