Blacks With Thyroid Cancer Fare Worse Than Whites

A woman touching her neck as she talks to her doctorBlacks have fewer incidences of thyroid cancer but have a more advanced form of the disease once they receive a diagnosis — and are more likely to die from it.

The mortality rate is probably due to an access to care issues. It has been found that Blacks had a 1 percent higher mortality rate, though thyroid cancer is twice as common among whites.

In a recent study,  Blacks were more likely to have tumors larger than four centimeters, which implies that the tumors sat there and grew a lot longer. The study also found they were more likely to present with anaplastic thyroid cancer, which is a fatal and advanced form of the disease, as opposed to papillary and medullary cancer, which are most common and easily treated.

How is thyroid cancer diagnosed?
