The thyroid cancer rate has doubled or possible tripled in the last twenty years in most Western countries; however there’s a paradigmatic case, according to an article published in New England by Ahn HS and collaborators: South Korea, where this rate has multiplied by fifteen. What has happened in this country? Is there an epidemic? This should not be the case given that when experts analyse specific population mortality (as shown in the chart), this figure remains unchanged. Therefore, everything points to a spectacular case of national over-diagnosis.
The authors explain that many government-encouraged providers offer very attractive and widely accepted preventive packs, including the use of ultrasound and other more sophisticated imaging tests for the early detection of thyroid cancer. It should be clarified that in South Korea, despite there being a national health system, there are co-payments for almost all health activities and as a consequence people pay close attention to the price of combined service offerings.
