ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Pediatric Oncology
Thyroid cancer among children and adolescents aged 5-19 years from 1990 to 2021: a global, regional, and national perspective
Provisionally accepted
- Jingjiang People's Hospital, Jingjiang, China
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Introduction: Thyroid cancer in children and adolescents (caTC) is characterized by a higher degree of malignancy, as well as an increased risk of distant metastasis and recurrence compared to thyroid cancer in adults. At present, new analyses of the global burden of caTC are limited and outdated. To conduct a comprehensive and systematic investigation into the burden and trends of caTC across the global population. Methods: Data were gathered from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study in 2021. A detailed analysis was performed using age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR), age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR), Age-Standardized Disability-Adjusted Life Years (ASDR), and average annual percent change (AAPC). Joinpoint regression, cross-country inequality, decomposition, and frontier analyses were conducted. Results: In 2021, we discovered a total of 4,951.78 new caTC cases globally, along with 30,499.94 DALYs. The age-standardized rates (ASRs) were 0.24 per 100,000 population for incidence and 1.52 per 100,000 for DALYs. In trend analysis, the global incidence (AAPC, 1.00) and prevalence (AAPC, 1.05) exhibited an increasing pattern, while the DALYs (AAPC, -0.37) declined. The ASIR of caTC in Africa, America, and Asia demonstrated a continuous upward trend, whereas Europe witnessed a decline. Consistently, the ASIR, ASPR, and ASDR of caTC were all higher among women compared to men. Notably, countries with low SDI bore a higher disease burden. Population growth and epidemiological changes were the primary drivers of this increased disease burden. Despite different levels of development, many countries still had considerable potential to reduce these disease burdens. Conclusions: CaTC persists as a significant public health concern globally. Its burden varies considerably in terms of global distribution and magnitude, thereby emphasizing the necessity for the formulation of targeted regional and population-based policies aimed at primary prevention.
Keywords: Children and adolescents, DALYs, Epidemiology, health inequality, Incidence, thyroid cancer, trend in global burden
Received: 29 Aug 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wang, Zhang, Fan, Yu and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shuixiu Yu
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