Molecular Study of Thyroid Cancer in World Trade Center Responders

Maaike A. G. van Gerwen, Stephanie Tuminello, Gregory J. Riggins, Thais B. Mendes, Michael Donovan, Emma K.T. Benn, Eric Genden, Janete M. Cerutti and Emanuela Taioli
Additional contact information
Maaike A. G. van Gerwen: Institute for Translational Epidemiology and Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Stephanie Tuminello: Institute for Translational Epidemiology and Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Gregory J. Riggins: Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Thais B. Mendes: Division of Genetics, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04039-032, Brazil
Michael Donovan: Department of Pathology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Emma K.T. Benn: Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Center for Biostatistics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Eric Genden: Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
Janete M. Cerutti: Division of Genetics, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04039-032, Brazil
Emanuela Taioli: Institute for Translational Epidemiology and Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-7

Abstract: Thyroid cancer incidence is higher in World Trade Center (WTC) responders compared with the general population. It is unclear whether this excess in thyroid cancer is associated with WTC-related exposures or if instead there is an over-diagnosis of malignant thyroid cancer among WTC first responders due to enhanced surveillance and physician bias. To maximize diagnostic yield and determine the false positive rate for malignancy, the histological diagnoses of thyroid cancer tumors from WTC responders and age, gender, and histology matched non-WTC thyroid cancer cases were evaluated using biomarkers of malignancy. Using a highly accurate panel of four biomarkers that are able to distinguish benign from malignant thyroid cancer, our results suggest that over-diagnosis by virtue of misdiagnosis of a benign tumor as malignant does not explain the increased incidence of thyroid cancer observed in WTC responders. Therefore, rather than over-diagnosis due to physician bias, the yearly screening visits by the World Trade Center Health Program are identifying true cases of thyroid cancer. Continuing regular screening of this cohort is thus warranted.

Keywords: 9/11; screening; thyroid cancer; biomarkers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1600/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1600/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1600-:d:228929

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().