To analyze regional variations, thyroid cancer incidence rates between 2005 and 2009 are presented in Figure 2. The range was 2.5 times comparing the lowest incidence state (Arkansas) to the highest (Massachusetts) in females, and 2.1 times comparing the lowest (South Carolina) to the highest (Massachusetts) in males.

The increased incidence of thyroid cancer is worldwide. The incidence of thyroid cancer has increased dramatically during the past three decades and it is now the fastest growing cancer in women. Almost all of this increase is in papillary thyroid cancer.

Background. The rapidly rising incidence of papillary thyroid cancer may be due to overdiagnosis of a reservoir of subclinical disease. To conclude that overdiagnosis is occurring, evidence for an association between access to health care and the incidence of cancer is necessary.

Disease-free patients after thyroid carcinoma have a normal residual life span. In contrast, in cases of persistent disease the life expectancy ranges widely with its median being reduced to 60%.

Thyroid cancer patients have a nearly 98 percent five-year survival rate, according to the National Cancer Institute. More than 95 percent survive a decade, leading some to call it a “good cancer.” But those successful outcomes mean few thyroid cancer survivorship studies have been conducted.

The bottom line is that most thyroid cancers are papillary thyroid cancer, and this is one of the most curable cancers of all cancers. More than 98% of patients with papillary thyroid cancer remain alive after five years.

Most patients with thyroid cancer have the cancer contained in the thyroid at the time of diagnosis. About 30% will have metastatic cancer, with most having spread of the cancer to the lymph nodes in the neck and only 1-4% having spread of the cancer outside of the neck to other organs such as the lungs and bone.

Stage II papillary and follicular thyroid cancer in patients younger than 55 years. The tumor is any size and cancer may have spread to nearby tissues and lymph nodes. Cancer has spread from the thyroid to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or bones.

Stage IVB: The primary tumor has grown into the spine or into nearby large blood vessels. In this thyroid cancer stage, the disease may or may not have spread to lymph nodes, but has not reached distant sites. Stage IVC: The thyroid cancer cells have metastasized, or spread to distant sites.