Trends in the incidence of thyroid cancer among US persons from 2000 to 2019

The incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing by 3% annually; however, the analysis was restricted to the period from 1973 to 2013, which could be changed in incidence trends over time. This study is to analyze trends in thyroid cancer incidence based on demographic and tumor characteristics at diagnosis using recent database.

We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to assess thyroid cancer incidence rates and trends from 2000 to 2019. We compared incidence rates for thyroid cancer among US persons by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and economic status (SES) and identified trends using Joinpoint software.

During 2000 to 2019, the overall thyroid cancer incidence was 13.22/100 000. This study found a decreasing trend in the incidence of thyroid cancer from 2014 to 2019 in the US with significant differences among age, sex, race and ethnicity, geographic region, SES, and tumor subtype. Specifically, the largest reduction in annual percentage changes in persons with all thyroid cancer and papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in 55-69 years, female, Black, highest SES, urban region, and non-Hispanic ethnicity groups were identified.

These results suggested that there is still a high epidemic of thyroid cancer in the US, whereas the rapidly increasing incidence rates of thyroid cancer have reversed since 2015, especially the incidence rates of PTC.