About Thyroid Cancer

Newly diagnosed thyroid cancer patients find that there is a lot to learn about our unique cancer. You may not know the function of the thyroid gland, its location in the body, how you will get along without having this organ, or what will happen in your treatment.  All of this is quite typical for people getting this diagnosis.  

This section of this website will outline some of the facts and let you know what path your treatment will likely take.

Find out about:

• What to do if you’ve just been diagnosed
• Thyroid Cancer Explained
• Types of Thyroid Cancer
• Treatment of Thyroid Cancer
• RAI treatment
• Low Iodine Diet
• Tips for Taking Thyroid Replacement

Who Gets Thyroid Cancer?

• the literature varies, but it is estimated that at least half of the population has thyroid nodues
• 95% of thyroid nodules are benign
• 80% of those with thyroid cancer are women (CCS Stats)
• thyroid cancer is now the #1 cancer in incidence in young women (CCS 2009)

Risk Factors

• History of thyroid cancer (pre-occuring, or in other family members)
• Age (higher risk over 45 years old)
• Gender (vast majority of new cases are women)
• External beam radiation (for other cancers)

For the vast majority of individual patients, the cause of thyroid cancer is unknown. 

The only known association (in a small number of cases) is direct exposure to high levels of radiation, such as for those living in the area of the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor accident in 1986.

It is also not known why the ratio of women with thyroid cancer in relation to men with the disease is very imbalanced. 80% of patients with the disease are women (CCS 2009).  Thyroid cancer has one of the lowest death rates among cancers (less than 1% for differentiated disease).  However, men are more at risk if they do have the disease, as they make up 20% of the cases but 37% of the deaths from this particular form of cancer.

The comparative incidence rate across provinces in Canada also varies greatly.  The highest incidences, as reported by the Canadian Cancer Society (2009), are in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario, Newfoundland and New Brunswick.  Some have hypothesized that environmental influences have played a part in the distribution of the disease.  Others purport theories of unequal access to expert diagnosticians. However, no definitive research has been undertaken to explain the geographic differences.

Another interesting finding is that persons of Filipino descent have a higher risk of being diagnosed with thyroid cancer than those in the general population of North America (Clark et al 2006, Haselkorn et al 2003, Rossing et al 1995). As well, those of Filipino descent have greater chance of recurrence (Lukas et al 2010).