Incidence

Thyroid cancer ranks 7th overall, 4th in females and 17th in males. An estimated 2,584 new cases, 2,068 in females and 516 in males, will occur in 1998. The incidence is three times more in females than that in males. Thyroid cancer is the most common cancer of women at age 15-24.

Risk factors

History of neck radiation during childhood.

Warning signals

A hard mass in the anterior neck; nodules of the thyroid in men; rapid enlargement of a long-standing goiter in older patients; cervical lymph node enlargement; hoarseness, difficulty of swallowing, and difficulty of breathing associated with goiter.

Early detection

Fine needle aspiration biopsy of solitary nodules, or of unusually prominent, hard or rapidly growing nodules in multinodular goiter.

Treatment

Almost 95% of thyroid cancer in the Philippines are well differentiated carcinoma, and are highly curable by appropriate surgery alone. Radioactive iodine is the main mode of treatment for metastatic lesions.