High thyroid cancer rate due to better diagnosis

The head and neck surgeons and oncologists said that the high incidence of thyroid cancer cases in Kerala is not due to overdiagnosis but better diagnosis.
"In Kerala, there is no overdiagnosis but better diagnosis of thyroid cancer. Probably many of them would have been detected later or may have gone undetected if left alone, as they grow slowly ," said Dr Subramania Iyer, head, Centre for Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology, AIMS.

"Now, almost 25% of the thyroid cases are cancerous. Five years back, the carcinoma thyroid cases was just about 5%. If the swelling is more than four centimetres in diametre, then whether cancerous or not, it needs to be removed. If it is less than four and the ultrasound is suggesting that it is problematic, then it is better to remove it. If you are late, the patient will have to go for radioactive iodine treatment program besides surgery. If further advanced, then they will require radiation," said Dr R Padmakumar, endoscopic thyroid surgeon, Renai Medicity . Almost 99.9% of thyroid cancer is treatable and curable. Though doctors don't know the exact reason for the increase in thyroid cancer incidence, they said that they suspect that there are several factors contributing to this, which could be due to thyroiditis that is going up in Kerala, background radiation, dietary factors or early diagnosis.

 Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/high-thyroid-cancer-rate-due-to-better-diagnosis/articleshow/58289854.cms

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