What is thyroid cancer?

Thyroid cancer occurs when cells grow and divide in an abnormal way in the thyroid, a gland found at the front of the throat under the voice box. There are four main types of thyroid cancer, but the most common types are papillary (70-80% of diagnoses) and follicular (15-20% of diagnoses). The less common types are medullary and anaplastic, which make up 4% and 1% of thyroid cancer diagnoses.

You can access further information about thyroid cancer, including risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment from Cancer Council Victoria. You can also call our trusted cancer nurses on 13 11 20 for support and to learn about our range of services for people affected by cancer.

The Victorian Cancer Registry also operates an interactive web portal, Data Explorer, which provides more trends and statistics than published here.

How common is thyroid cancer?

In 2024, 865 Victorians were diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Of these, there were 258 males and 606 females, representing 30% and 70% of the total Victorian thyroid cancer diagnoses, respectively. There were 1 cases where sex was reported as neither male or female, not known, established or defined. Currently, thyroid cancer is diagnosed at a rate of 7 per 100,000 males and 16 per 100,000 females. The median age at diagnosis of thyroid cancer is 55 years in males and 50 in females (Figure 1 & 2). Accounting for 2.1% of all cancers diagnosed and 0.29% of all cancer-related deaths in 2024, thyroid cancer was the 10th most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 37th most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Victoria.

Trends in thyroid cancer over time

Figure 3a shows for males between 1982 to 2024 the age standardised incidence rate of thyroid cancer increased by an average of 4.3% per year.

For females between 2013 to 2024 the age standardised incidence rate of thyroid cancer increased by an average of 1.7% per year.

Thyroid cancer morphology

Figure 4 provides a summary of the different types of cells (morphology) which have caused thyroid cancer among all cases. Most thyroid cancer tumours, 80%, present as papillary carcinoma tumours.

Geographical variance in thyroid cancer by local government area

Figure 5 demonstrates variation in the estimated risk of being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, by local government area, relative to the Victorian average. Red shading indicates areas with higher risk and blue shading indicates areas with lower risk relative to Victoria.

Thyroid cancer in people born overseas

Figure 6 shows the standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) of thyroid cancer in Australian-born Victorians compared to other major migrant groups, over the five-year period 2019 to 2023. The highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) for thyroid cancer was 1.5 for males born in the Middle East and North Africa region and the lowest SIR of 0.69 was observed in males born in the UK and Ireland region. The highest standardised incidence ratio (SIR) for thyroid cancer was 1.8 for females born in the Middle East and North Africa region and the lowest SIR of 0.80 was observed in females born in the UK and Ireland region.

Thyroid cancer five-year relative survival

Figure 7 shows the change in 5-year survival for thyroid cancer, and the 5-year survival trend for all cancers over the same time period. It demonstrates that five-year relative survival has increased for thyroid cancer between 1985-1989 and 2020-2024 from 80% to 96%.