Evaluation of the Relationship Between Papillary Thyroid Cancer and Radiation Exposure

Abstract

Introduction: It has been identified ionizing radiation as the definitive cause of cancer in humans. One third of the tumors that develop after radiation exposure are malignant, with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) being the most common cancer type. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between total radiation dose (TRD) received during imaging tests and thyroid cancer occurrence in patients diagnosed with PTC. Material and Method: The study was designed to retrospectively review the data of adult patients aged ≥ 18 years who were diagnosed with PTC between 2005 and 2022. Patients diagnosed with a condition other than PTC were excluded from the study Result: 307 patients with papillary thyroid cancer were 256 (83.4%) women, with a mean age of 44.7 ± 13.5 years. A statistically significant relationship was observed between TRD and multifocality (p = 0.02). Tumor size (r = 0,2, p = 0.07) weakly correlated with TRD. And TRD (OR: 0.9, 95% CI: 1.0-1.1, p: 0.006) according to multifocalty were found to be significant. Discussion: This study found an association between TRD taken during imaging tests and multifocality. As a result, the authors aimed to remind clinicians that the disease may progress more aggressively and that thyroid cancer may develop in patients exposed to radiation as a result of excessive imaging tests