USPSTF Finalizes Recommendation Against Thyroid Cancer Screening

By Amy Orciari Herman

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Lorenzo Di Francesco, MD, FACP, FHM

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is again recommending against routine thyroid cancer screening in asymptomatic adults. The finalized statement — a grade D recommendation largely consistent with the group's 1996 guidance — appears in JAMA.

A JAMA editorialist, however, says "the conversation about screening for thyroid carcinoma should not stop." She cites recent data suggesting an increase in thyroid cancer-related mortality, and says, "the aim should still be to reduce the 2000 deaths from thyroid cancer that occur in the United States each year." She calls for research to identify "a noninvasive measure, either radiographic or by biomarker, to distinguish between nodules that have thyroid cells that will leave the capsule and cause morbidity and those nodules that do not."