[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Worldwide Thyroid-Cancer Epidemic? The Increasing Impact of Overdiagnosis

[Chris Alston]

Ladies + Gents

There's another aspect to this question, which I neglected to mention in my
other posting.  It's been pretty clear, since the 1980's, that likely all
men develop prostate Ca, sooner or later.  Back in the days when people did
a lot of autopsies, somebody noticed that findings of microscopic Ca, in
the prostate, when plotted against age at time of death, strongly suggested
that at a certain age (I don't remember the numerical value, but it was
not, say, 135 y.) the incidence of such findings would be 100%.  It now
appears that the same may be true for other *solid* tumors, notably those
of the thyroid.  That is, we may all get thyroid Ca, if we live long enough.

So, given the great increase in surveillance (I've lost track of how many
women have told me that their *gyn* doc found their thyroid tumor), an
aging population, and the possible increasing prevalence of microscopic
tumors in older populations, it's not surprising that we find more thyroid
Ca.  "Seek, and ye shall find."

Cheers
ca

P.S.  This apparent increase in thyroid Ca goes back to the 1990's.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brooks, Michael <Michael.Brooks at poole.nhs.uk>
Date: Mon, Aug 22, 2016 at 9:34 AM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Worldwide Thyroid-Cancer Epidemic? The Increasing
Impact of Overdiagnosis
To: "radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1604412?query=TOC
I can't access the article, but thought it looked interesting for those
that can (given the 'new' cancers found post Fukushima).
Regards,
Mick
Michael Brooks, PhD