The overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer should not be overinterpreted

Abstract

Recently, the topic of "overdiagnosis" of thyroid cancer has once again sparked controversy in the medical academic community, as well as extensive discussions from patients and the general population. To some extent, the overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer has been over interpreted. This article provides a detailed discussion on how to correctly understand the overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer from the perspective of a thyroid surgeon. The author believes that there are two elements to the occurrence of overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer: the presence of a large "silent pool" of inert tumors in the human body and medical methods to improve detection rates. In recent years, thyroid cancer has become the fastest growing malignant tumor in the world in terms of incidence rate. The exponential growth mode makes thyroid cancer over diagnosed and inevitably becomes a hot topic in academia. However, the overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer is not contradictory to the early screening and diagnosis of thyroid cancer. The overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer should be viewed scientifically and rationally, especially avoiding overinterpretation.