Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The incidence of thyroid cancer (TC) has been increasing in recent years while mortality has remained stable. The cause of this increase is unclear, although several hypotheses have been proposed. While the increased incidence may only be apparent due to increased testing, there is data that suggest that there may be a real increase in incidence related to different risk factors. The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine the current incidence of TC in Europe.

Methods: A literature search was performed using MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases looking for studies published between January 2017 and December 2021 using the keywords thyroid cancer, prevalence, incidence, epidemiology and Europe, which yielded 525 studies. After excluding papers with insufficient or inadequate information, 53 studies were further evaluated. Of those, only 15 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were subsequently analysed. We performed random-effect meta-analysis using MedCalc software. Meta-analysis was performed on all TC and on each histotype (papillary, follicular, medullary, and anaplastic) separately.

Results: TC mean incidence (95% CI) per 100,000 person-years was 10.2 (6.3-15.0); for women and men, 15.4 (10.4-21.4) and 5.0 (3.5-6.8), respectively. The incidences for histotypes (total, women and men) were: papillary 6.0 (2.4-11.3), 11.7 (6.0-19-3), 4.2 (2.4-6.4); follicular 1.1 (0.9-1.4), 1,8 (1.7-1.9), 0.8 (0.7-0.8); medullary 0.5 (0.4-0.6), 0.6 (0.4-0.8); and anaplastic 0.2 (0.1-0.3), 0.2 (0.2-0.3), 0.2 (0.1-0.2).

Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to offer an overview of the current incidence of TC in Europe and provides information on the incidence of all histotypes of TC as well. In all cases, the incidence in women was higher than in men. The incidence of papillary TC was found to be the highest among the different histological types, followed by follicular, medullary, and anaplastic. The results are consistent with the global trend of increasing incidence of papillary TC.