Incidence of diagnosed thyroid cancer may be leveling off

The researchers found that from 1988 to 1998, the incidence of thyroid cancer had an annual percentage increase of 3 percent. The trend accelerated to 6.7 percent from 1998 to 2009 and then stabilized from 2010 to 2012 at 1.75 percent. The stabilization in incidence rates from 2010 to 2012 remained when tumors were stratified by size and was most pronounced for tumors of subcentimeter size.

"The rapidly rising incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States has been recognized as an 'epidemic of diagnosis' more than an epidemic of disease. Acknowledging this, practice guidelines are becoming increasingly nuanced in recommendations about which nodules to biopsy. The data reported here suggest that clinical practices are also changing, as reflected by the beginning of stabilization of the previously rapidly rising incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States," the authors write.