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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Ann MacMillan, MPH, Richard Knowlton, MS, and Susan T. Gershman, PhD. Massachusetts Cancer Registry, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02108-4619, (617)624-5686, richard.knowlton@state.ma.us

Background and Objectives: Thyroid cancer incidence rates have been increasing in the U.S. and other western nations over the past several years, particularly among women. This study will investigate the epidemiology of thyroid cancer incidence in Massachusetts by gender, age, race/ethnicity, diagnosis year, histological type and stage at diagnosis. Methods: Thyroid cancer cases diagnosed from 1984-2003 and reported to the Massachusetts Cancer Registry will be analyzed by age, gender and race. For time trend analyses, joinpoint regression will be used. The four major histological types of thyroid cancer (papillary, follicular, medullary and anaplastic) will be described by demographic variables and time trends. Finally, Massachusetts data will be compared to U.S. data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program. Results: Preliminary analyses of thyroid cancer incidence rates in Massachusetts from 1998-2002 revealed a statistically significant average increase of 10.5% annually in females, and a non-significant increase of 7.5% in males. Age-specific rates peaked at ages 35-39 among females and at 65-69 among males. Women accounted for an average of 76% of cases from 1993-2003. Compared to the other histological types of thyroid cancer, papillary has increased dramatically from 254 cases in 1993 to 613 cases in 2002. Conclusions: Thyroid cancer appears to be increasing among women and especially among the papillary type. Further analyses will be performed to quantify these increases and to test for significance. Additionally, factors related to the increase, such as the birth cohort effect and earlier diagnosis stage will be investigated.

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