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Ionising radiation causing rise in thyroid cancer

Your Health: Rise in thyroid cancer may be tied to radiation

By Kim Painter, USA TODAY 16 August 09

A medical mystery: As overall cancer rates fall, why are thyroid cancer rates rising? Diagnoses of cancer in this gland in the neck are increasing about 6% a year, faster than cancers found anywhere else, according to one National Cancer Institute analysis.

Researchers know one big reason: The many medical scans Americans have, for everything from neck pain to artery plaque, are turning up thousands of tiny thyroid tumors that otherwise might go undetected and often would do no harm.

“We call them ‘incidentalomas,’ ” says Amy Chen, a head and neck surgeon at Emory University in Atlanta and American Cancer Society researcher.

But that’s not the whole story. Two recent studies, including one co-written by Chen, show larger thyroid tumors are being found at an increasing rate, too. And those can’t be explained by more aggressive diagnosis alone, researchers say.

“There is something else going on” to contribute to the 37,000 cases of thyroid cancer expected this year, Chen says. That’s up from 18,000 in 2000.

Your Health: Rise in thyroid cancer may be tied to radiation – USATODAY.com

August 17, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, environment, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive