Differentiated thyroid cancer mortality by disease stage in northern England

Objective: Mortality from thyroid cancer is reported to be higher in the UK compared with several other European countries, though UK data on mortality by disease stage have not been published. The aim of this study was to ascertain disease-specific mortality by stage in our centre. Design, patients and measurements: This was a cohort study of all patients presenting to a single centre. Four hundred and twenty patients treated between 2000 and 2010 were identified. The medical records and causes of deaths were reviewed and analysed. Results: Overall disease-specific mortality at 5 and 10 years was 1.4% and 5.8%, respectively. The observed mortality was 58 against 66.3 expected deaths (CI 43.8-75.4) thus yielding an age-standardized mortality rate of 0.87. There were no deaths due to thyroid cancer in patients with stage I disease at 5 or 10 years. The 10-year disease-specific mortality rose with stage (stage II 3.1%, stage III 28.6%, stage IV 30%). Conclusions: Thyroid cancer mortality of patients treated at our centre was lower than the official national UK registry and most European figures.