Summary
Although substantial decreases have been recorded, age-standardized mortality rates from thyroid cancer in Switzerland are still the highest in Europe in men (0.9/100000), together with those from Austria, and the third highest (1.0/100 000) in women. Detailed analysis of 308 new cases registered between 1974 and 1987 in the Swiss Canton of Vaud revealed an overall incidence rate of 1.36/100000 men (world standard) in 1974–1980 and of 1.74/100 000 in 1981–1987. Corresponding values for women were 4.28 and 4.51, respectively. Thus, women constituted the majority of all cases (76%). Papillary carcinoma was the most frequent histological type (53%) followed by follicular (27%), undifferentiated (5%) and medullary (2%); other morphologies and clinical tumours accounted for 13% of the whole series. In both sexes, most of the apparent increase over the calendar period was restricted to the papillary type. Overall 5- and 10-year survival rates were 71% and 57%. When various factors were introduced in a Cox proportional-hazard model, young age at diagnosis (hazard rate for ≧65 years vs <45=14.7; 95% confidence interval=7.5–29.1) and good histological differentiation (hazard rate for papillary and follicular vs undifferentiated=0.4) emerged as strong favourable and independent prognostic factors. The reduced hazard rate for women, other factors being equal, was of borderline significance (0.7, 95% confidence interval=0.5–1.0), whereas no significant difference was observed between follicular and papillary carcinomas, and calendar periods of diagnosis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Apter D, Vinko R (1983) Early menarche, a risk factor for breast cancer, indicates early onset of ovulatory cycles. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 57:82–86
Ashcraft MW, Van Herle AJ (1981a) Management of thyroid nodules: I. History and physical examination, blood test, x ray test, and ultrasonography. Head Neck Surg 3:216–227
Ashcraft MW, Van Herle AJ (1981b) Management of thyroid nodules: II. Scanning techniques, thyroid suppressive therapy, and fine needle aspiration. Head Neck Surg 3:297–322
Belfiore A, La Rosa GL, Padova G, et al. (1987) The frequency of cold thyroid nodules and thyroid malignancies in patients from an iodine-deficient area. Cancer 60:3096–3102
Bubenhofer R, Hedinger C (1977) Schilddrüsemalignome vor und nach Einführung der Jodsalzprophylaxe. Schweiz Med Wochenschr 107:733–741
Burt A, Goudie RB (1979) Diagnosis of primary thyroid carcinoma by immunohistological demonstration of thyroglobulin. Histopathology 3:279–286
Cady B, Sedgwick CE, Meissner WA, et al. (1979) Risk factor analysis in differentiated thyroid cancer. Cancer 43:810–820
Cancer Registry of Norway (1975) Survival of cancer patients. The Norwegian Cancer Society, Oslo, pp 154–157
Christensen SB, Ljungberg AO (1984) Mortality from thyroid carcinoma in Malmö, Sweden 1960–1977. Cancer 54:1629–1634
Christensen SB, Ljungberg O, Tibblin S (1984) Thyroid carcinoma in Malmö, 1960–1977. Epidemiologic, clinical and prognostic findings in a defined urban population. Cancer 53:1625–1633
Cox DR (1972) Regression models for life tables. J R Stat Soc 34:187–220
Cuello C, Correa P, Eisenberg H (1969) Geographic pathology of thyroid carcinoma. Cancer 23:230–239
Doll R, Waterhouse J (1966) Cancer incidence in five continents. Berlin, Springer-Verlag, UICC Technical Report: vol 1. UIDD, Geneva
Doll R, Muir CS, Waterhouse JAH (1970) Cancer incidence in five continents. UICC Technical Report: vol 2. UICC, Geneva
Franceschi S, Fassina A, Talamini R, et al. (1989) Risk factors for thyroid cancer in Northern Italy. Int J Epidemiol 18:578–584
Franceschi S, Fassina A, Talamini R, et al. (1990b) The influence of reproductive and hormonal factors on thyroid cancer in women. Rev Epidemiol Santé Publique 38:27–34
Franssila K, Saxén E, Teppo L, et al. (1981) Incidence of different morphological types of thyroid cancer in the nordic countries. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand 89:49–55
Hannequin P, Liehn JC, Delisle MJ (1986) Multifactorial analysis of survival in thyroid cancer. Cancer 58:1749–1755
Hedinger C, Sobin LH (1974) Histological typing of thyroid tumours. International histological classification of tumours: no. 11. WHO, Geneva
Hedinger C, Williams ED, Sobin LH (1989) The WHO histological classification of thyroid tumors: a commentary on the second edition. Cancer 63:908–911
Heitz P, Moser H, Staub JJ (1976) Thyroid cancer. Cancer 37:2329–2337
Hrafnkelsson J, Jonasson JG, Sigurdsson G, et al. (1988) Thyroid cancer in Iceland 1955–1984. Acta Endocrinol (Copenh) 118:566–572
International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (1976) ICDO, 1st edn. WHO, Geneva
Joensuu H, Klemi P, Eerola E, et al. (1986) Influence of cellular DNA content on survival in differentiated thyroid cancer. Cancer 58:2462–2467
Kaplan EL, Meier P (1958) Non-parametric estimation from incomplete observations. J Am Stat Assoc 53:457–481
Kerr DJ, Burt Ad, Brewin TB, et al. (1985) Divergence between mortality and incidence rates of thyroid cancer in Scotland. Lancet 2:149
Kerr DJ, Burt AD, Boyle P, et al. (1986) Prognostic factors in thyroid tumours. Br J Cancer 54:475–482
Khafagi F, Wright G, Castles H, et al. (1988) Screening for thyroid malignancy: the role of fine-needle biopsy. Med J Aust 149:302–307
Levi F, Decarli A, La Vecchia C, Randriamiharisoa A. (1988) Krebssterblichkeit in der Schweiz, 1950–1984. La mortalité par cancer en Suisse 1950–1984; Cancer mortality in Switzerland, 1950–1984. Bundesamt für Statistik, Bern/Institut universitaire de médecine sociale et préventive, Lausanne (Amtliche Statistik der Schweiz, Nr. 165)
Levi F, Maisonneuve P, Filiberti R, et al. (1989) Cancer incidence and mortality in Europe. Soz Proventivmed [Suppl] 2:52–53
Lindahl F (1975) Papillary thyroid carcinoma in Denmark, 1943–1968. Cancer 36:540–552
Mantel N (1966) Evaluation of survival data and two new rank order statistics arising in its consideration. Cancer Chemother Rep 50:163–170
Mazzaferri EL (1987) Papillary thyroid carcinoma: factors influencing prognosis and current therapy. Semin Oncol 14:315–332
Mc Tiernan AM, Weiss NS, Daling JR (1984) Incidence of thyroid cancer in women in relation to reproductive and hormonal factors. Am J Epidemiol 120:423–435
Mc Tiernan AM, Weiss NS, Daling JR (1987) Incidence of thyroid cancer in women in relation to known or suspected risk factors for breast cancer. Cancer Res 47:292–295
Muir CS (1982) Time trends as indicators of etiology. In: Magnus I (ed) Trends in cancer incidence. Hemisphere, Washington, pp 89–101
Muir CS, Waterhouse J, Mack T, et al. (1987) Cancer incidence in five continents, vol 5, IARC Sci Publ no 88. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon
Okamura K, Nakashima T, Ueda K, et al. (1987) Thyroid disorders in the general population of Hisayama Japan, with special reference to prevalence and sex differences. Int J Epidemiol 16:545–549
Pottern ML, Stone BJ, Day NE, et al. (1980) Thyroid cancer in Connecticut, 1935–1975: an analysis by cell type. Am J Epidemiol 112:764–774
Preston-Martin S, Bernstein L, Pike MC, et al. (1987) Thyroid cancer among young women related to prior thyroid disease and pregnancy history. Br J Cancer 55:191–195
Riccabona G (1987) Thyroid cancer. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 95–125
Rigaud C (1988) Le carcinome papillaire de la thyroide: évolution des critères histologiques du diagnostic. Ann Pathol 8:211–219
Robbins SL, Cotram RS, Kumar V (1984a) Pathologic basis of disease. Thyroid Gland. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1201–25
Rolon PA (1986) Cancer de la thyroide en zone de goitre endémique. Ann Pathol 6:170–175
Ron E, Modan B (1982) Thyroid. In: Schottenfeld D, Fraumeni JF Jr (eds) Cancer epidemiology and prevention. Saunders, Philadelphia, 837–54
Ron E, Kleinerman RA, Boice JD, et al. (1987) A population-based case-control study of thyroid cancer. JNCI 79:1–12
Rosai J, Carcangiu ML (1984) Pathology of thyroid tumors: some recent and old questions. Hum Pathol 15:1008–1012
Rosai J, Carcangiu ML (1987) Pitfalls in the diagnosis of thyroid neoplasms. Pathol Res Pract 182:169–179
Saxén EA (1982) Trends: factors of fallacy. In: Magnus I (ed) Trends in cancer incidence. Hemisphere, Washington, 5–103
Schottenfeld D, Gershman ST (1978) Epidemiology of thyroid cancer. Cancer 28:66–86
Thöresen SO, Akslen LA, Glattre E, et al. (1989) Survival and prognostic factors in differentiated thyroid cancer — a multivariate analysis of 1,055 cases. Br J Cancer 59:231–235
Tubiana M, Schlumberger M, Rougier P, et al. (1985) Long-term results and prognostic factors in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Cancer 55:794–804
Waterhouse J, Muir CS, Correa P, et al. (1976) Cancer incidence in five continents, vol 3, IARC Sci Publ no 15. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon
Waterhouse J, Muir CS, Shanmugaratnam K, et al. (1982) Cancer incidence in five continents, vol 4, IARC Sci Publ no 42. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon
Weiss W (1979) Changing incidence of thyroid cancer. JNCI 62:1137–1142
Williams ED (1979) The aetiology of thyroid tumours. Clin Endocrinol Metab 8:193–207
Williams ED, Doniach I, Bjarnason O, et al. (1977) Thyroid cancer in an iodine rich area. A histopathological study. Cancer 39:215–222
Wynder EL (1952) Some practical aspects of cancer prevention. N Engl J Med 246:573–582
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Levi, F., Franceschi, S., Te, VC. et al. Descriptive epidemiology of thyroid cancer in the Swiss Canton of Vaud. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 116, 639–647 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01637087
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01637087