Thyroid cancer incidence and mortality trends in Croatia 1988-2010

The aim of our study was to describe and interpret national trends in thyroid cancer in Croatian men and women during the 1988-2010 period, to better understand the incidence and mortality trends in comparison with other populations, and to determine the proportion of certain histologic subtypes of thyroid cancer and their impact on these trends. Using information from the Croatian National Cancer Registry and WHO Mortality Database, we estimated trends in the age-standardized incidence and mortality rates by joinpoint regression analysis. Thyroid cancer incidence increased in both women and men during the study period, with the estimated annual percent change (EAPC) of 6.4% and 5.5%, with no joinpoints identified. A significant decrease in mortality (EAPC-2.1%) was observed in women, while in men mortality rates decreased nonsignificantly (EAPC-1.3%). A statistically significant incidence increase was observed only for papillary carcinomas with annual incidence increase by 6.7% for women and 7.9% for men. During the study period, thyroid cancer showed an incidence increase in Croatia with persistent and steady decrease in mortality in women and statistically nonsignificant decrease in mortality in men. The increase in papillary carcinomas led to the thyroid cancer incidence increase and also affected the thyroid cancer mortality decrease in women. The trends observed are similar to those in other European countries and require additional analysis to determine all factors that have an effect on them.