Epidemic of diagnosis of thyroid cancer

Incidence of thyroid cancer has been going up. Steeply. But the mortality rate has been as flat as the Bonneville Salt Flats. Ergo, either we have an excellent treatment regimen for thyroid cancer or we have an epidemic of thyroid cancer diagnosis. It's the latter.

Currently, there is no way to confidently predict which incidentally detected thyroid nodule may be the precursor to a more aggressive process. Predictions such as these would require more accurate characterization of the biology of individual thyroid cancers than is currently possible. With time, we might prove our ability to confidently differentiate low-risk from high-risk thyroid cancers, but until that happens, routine screening for thyroid cancer by imaging billed as a “health checkup” should not be performed

[http://archotol.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=2276788]

Dr. Gilbert Welch explains this lucidly in his cancer screening video (@11 min.)