In a 40-year period beginning in 1975, diagnoses for thyroid cancer tripled, yet the number of people dying of thyroid cancer remained steady. According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the condition appears to have been over diagnosed. The report says small thyroid growths or nodules are common but few are cancerous. The most common type of thyroid cancer, small papillary, grows so slowly that it rarely causes problems. According to the Mayo Clinic, the treatment could be riskier than the disease since after thyroid removal patients must remain on medicine for life.
