The rising rate of thyroid cancer in Australia is at least partly due to more serendipitous detection rather than more disease, Australian research suggests.
Data from the past 20 years show the age-standardised incidence rates for thyroid cancer have increased by 150% in men and 238% in women.
But of 452 people with thyroid cancer who participated in an NSW study, only 40% were diagnosed after the patient reported a lump or symptom.
The remainder were incidental diagnoses, including 16% after the doctor noticed a lump, 11% after an incidental finding on radiography, and 26% after investigation of a benign thyroid condition, such as a goitre or nodule, the study found.
Lead study author Professor Dianne O'Connell, an epidemiologist at...
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