Diagnosis of thyroid cancer

It is believed that thyroid cancer is quite rare, accounting for less than 1% of the total number of malignant tumors in the population in all countries of the world. However, studies in recent years have revealed a significant increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer and its pronounced geographical differences. Therefore, while in Japan it is 0.5 per 100,000 of the population for men and 1.9-3.0 per 100,000 of the population for women, in Norway it is 2.0 and 5.8 per 100,000 of the population, respectively. In addition, there was information about the high frequency of the latent thyroid cancer. In Japan, in particular, latent thyroid cancer is found in 5.6–35.6% of autopsies included in the statistics. We are talking about random finds in people who died from non-endocrine diseases. The clinical significance of latent cancer is still unknown. This is evidence that malignant tumors of the thyroid gland are not a rare disease and are often not diagnosed during the patient’s life.