Thyroid

C73WHO Vol. 10

Endocrine & Neuroendocrine System

Key facts

New cases per year (US)

45,240 estimated in 2026 (SEER)

5-year relative survival

98.3% overall; 99.9% localized (SEER, 2016–2022)

Main risk factors

Radiation exposure to the head/neck in childhood, female sex, family history (RET mutations in medullary type)

Detection

Sometimes found during routine physical exams; diagnosed with thyroid ultrasound and fine-needle aspiration biopsy of nodules

Typical age and sex

Median age 51 at diagnosis; women affected ~3x more often than men (20.0 vs 7.4 per 100,000)

Thyroid cancer arises when malignant cells form in the thyroid, the butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the throat that produces hormones regulating metabolism, heart rate and calcium levels. The main types are papillary and follicular carcinoma (well-differentiated forms that can usually be treated effectively and often cured), medullary carcinoma (arising in C cells, sometimes hereditary through RET gene mutations) and rare but aggressive anaplastic carcinoma; papillary cancer is the most common. Early disease frequently causes no symptoms; when present, typical signs include a lump (nodule) in the neck, hoarseness, or trouble swallowing or breathing. Some cases are found during a routine physical examination before any symptoms appear. Diagnosis is usually established with thyroid ultrasound and fine-needle aspiration biopsy. Thyroid cancer occurs almost three times more often in women than in men, and radiation exposure to the head and neck in childhood is a key risk factor.

Prognosis

Thyroid cancer has one of the most favorable outlooks in oncology: the 5-year relative survival is 98.3% overall (SEER, 2016–2022), 99.9% for localized disease, 98.1% for regional spread, and 48.3% when distant metastases are present. Outlook is strongly type- and stage-dependent — well-differentiated papillary and follicular cancers, the most common forms, can usually be treated and often cured, while the rare anaplastic form grows quickly and carries a much poorer prognosis. Deaths are uncommon relative to diagnoses: an estimated 2,320 deaths versus 45,240 new US cases in 2026 (SEER). These figures are population statistics describing large groups of past patients; they do not predict the course of any individual person's disease, which also depends on tumor type, age, overall health and response to treatment.

🔬 Histological Types

📚 Latest Research

2026-09-10 • AI

Interpretable four-class machine learning prediction of initial I-131 therapy responses in differentiated thyroid cancer.

Lei Y, et al

A four-class Random Forest machine learning framework achieved a micro-average AUC of 0.894 (95% CI: 0.842–0.901) in the test cohort and 0.885 (95% CI: 0.832–0.912) in temporal validation when predicting four distinct response categories — excellent response, indeterminate response, biochemical incomplete response, and structural incomplete response — to initial post-operative I-131 therapy in differentiated thyroid cancer. Developed and validated in 948 patients, SHAP analysis showed that pre-treatment stimulated thyroglobulin (pre-sTg) was the dominant predictor of biochemical responses (peak weight 31.9% for biochemical incomplete response), while diagnostic whole-body scintigraphy drove structural incomplete response predictions (45.1% weight), with distant metastasis on scintigraphy raising structural incomplete response risk dramatically (OR: 171.89) and pre-sTg ≥ 10 ng/mL significantly increasing both structural (OR: 7.18) and biochemical incomplete response (OR: 5.48) risks. By separating transitional states obscured in conventional binary models, this interpretable tool offers clinicians a practical pre-therapeutic risk-stratification framework for personalizing radioiodine management in thyroid cancer patients.

Annals of medicine

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2026-09-10

Latin American Thyroid Society expert panel consensus on anaplastic thyroid cancer.

Califano I, et al

The Latin American Thyroid Society convened a multidisciplinary expert panel spanning endocrinology, surgery, oncology, pathology, and genetics to develop 37 evidence-based consensus recommendations for the diagnosis and management of anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), the most aggressive histologic subtype of thyroid malignancy. The panel adopted a pre-specified voting framework in which "should" required unanimous (100%) agreement, "is recommended" required ≥70% agreement, and "may be considered" was applied when agreement fell below 70% or when applicability depended on local resources or patient-specific context. The consensus explicitly accounts for the limited healthcare resources across Latin America and integrates recent advances in ATC biology and therapeutic strategies to provide a practical, regionally tailored framework. These 37 recommendations are intended to harmonize clinical practice, promote multidisciplinary care, and serve as a foundation for future research and regional health policy development for this highly lethal disease.

Archives of endocrinology and metabolism

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2026-09-09

Contemporary management of differentiated thyroid cancer in Latin America: results from the CaTaLiNA prospective multicenter registry.

Solis-Pazmino P, et al

A large Latin American registry study of 901 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer found that clinical practice frequently exceeded the intensity recommended by American Thyroid Association (ATA) 2015 guidelines, with total thyroidectomy performed in 96.4% of patients and radioactive iodine (RAI) administered in 54.3% overall — including 40.7% of low-risk patients — despite international trends toward de-escalation. The CaTaLiNA prospective multicenter registry enrolled adults from 11 centers across Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Uruguay treated between June 2023 and October 2025, with 81.5% of patients classified as AJCC stage I and 96.7% having papillary thyroid carcinoma. Postoperative complications occurred in 15.4% of patients, predominantly transient hypocalcemia, with tumor size as the only independent predictor after multivariable adjustment. These findings highlight a significant gap between guideline recommendations and real-world practice in the region and underscore the need to optimize risk-adapted, evidence-based care to reduce overtreatment of differentiated thyroid cancer in Latin America.

Endocrine

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