Seafood diet might lead to thyroid cancer

Chinanews, Shanghai, Oct 30 – In China's eastern coastal region, young women have become a highly risky group for thyroid cancer because of their preference for seafood, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

Last week, the first International Thyroid Surgery Forum was concluded. At the forum, the Fudan University Affiliated Tumor Hospital released a set of statistics to reveal that in China, the incident of thyroid cancer had increased 300% in ten years. The number of young women who were under the age of 40 and suffered from thyroid cancer was 2-5 times that of men. Many of these women liked to eat a lot of seafood that contained a high level of iodine.

Most seafood contains a high level of iodine, a substance that will easily induce thyroid disease. Women have their special physical conditions and their health is often disturbed by sex hormone release, endocrine imbalance and radiation. This will make them more vulnerable to thyroid cancer. Of all the 53 patients that stayed at the Head and Neck Disease Department of the Fudan University Affiliated Tumor Hospital, 80% came from the eastern coastal region and most of them were women, said Ji Qinghai, professor at the Head and Neck Disease Department.

Since thyroid cancer does not show any symptoms during the early stage, doctors suggest that people whose family members got similar disease before or young women who eat a lot of seafood in their diet should go to hospital to check their thyroid once every year, as these people are regarded as the highly risky group for thyroid cancer.