Abstract

Objective: Thyroid cancer is one of the most common endocrine cancers with high mortality rates compared to other cancers of this subtype. Further knowledge about the incidence and mortality of this disease and its geographical distribution are salient for early diagnosis and prevention of this cancer. Therefore, this study has been implemented with the aim of determining the incidence and mortality rate of thyroid cancer and its relationship with Human Development Index (HDI) in the world in 2012. Materials and Methods: This is an ecological study conducted based on the data from GLOBOCAN project of World Health Organization (WHO) and HDI from World Bank. The correlation between standardized incidence rates (SIRs) and standardized mortality rates (SMRs) of thyroid cancer with HDI and its components was assessed with correlation coefficient by using SPSS 15. Results: A total of 298102 incidences of and 39771 deaths from thyroid cancer were recorded in 2012 worldwide. The standardized incidence and death rate of thyroid cancer were 4 and 0.5 per hundred thousand people, respectively. A positive correlation of 0.408 was seen between the standardized incidence rate of thyroid cancer and human development index. This association was statistically significant if p< 0.001. In stark contrast, however a negative correlation of -0.309 was seen between the standardized mortality rates of thyroid cancer with Human Development Index. This correlation was statistically significant when p< 0.001. Conclusions: The highest incidence rate of thyroid cancer occurs in very high HDI countries and the highest mortality rate occurs in low and average HDI countries. In order to reduce the incidence and mortality of thyroid cancer, further investigations are needed to prevent this disease.