A risk factor for thyroid cancer is anything that increases your risk of developing it. Knowing these risk factors can help with early detection and successful treatment.
1. Gender
For reasons that are still being investigated, women are up to three times more likely to
develop thyroid cancer than men, says Cancer.net.
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2. Genetics
Your family history plays a part in your personal thyroid cancer risk. Specifically, some hereditary conditions can increase your risk include family history of goiter or enlarged thyroid gland, medullary thyroid cancer, and precancerous growths in the colon among others.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America recommends genetic counselling and DNA testing for patients who have a family history of medullary thyroid cancer. Some doctors recommend removing the thyroid gland in people who test positive for the genetic mutation.
3. Age
The most common types of thyroid cancer are diagnosed in patients between the ages of 20 and 55. After the age of 60, the risk of developing the rarest and aggressive form of thyroid cancer, anaplastic thyroid cancer, increases.
4. History of radiation exposure
Childhood trauma, tonsillitis, or other conditions that resulted in X-ray treatment before 1950 increases your risk of thyroid cancer. Also, exposure to radioactive fallout from nuclear power plant accidents or nuclear weapons testing is a risk factor for thyroid cancer.
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5. Iodine deficiency
Iodine is necessary for thyroid function and while iodine deficiency is less common in the U.S. than in less developed countries, it is a contributing risk factor for thyroid cancer.
6. Race
Asian and caucasian people are more likely to develop thyroid cancer.
7. Breast cancer
For reasons that are still being researched, breast cancer survivors have an increased risk of developing thyroid cancer, especially those who are young and within five years of their breast cancer diagnosis.
According to the American Cancer Society, having one or more of the risk factors for thyroid cancer does not mean you will develop the disease. There are also plenty of cases of thyroid and other cancers that are diagnosed in the absence of nearly all risk factors, and it is difficult to determine how much each risk factor may contribute to overall risk.
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