Molecular pathogenetic aspects in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer accounts for 1 - 1.5% of all malignant neoplasms. In recent years, there has been a trend towards an increase in the prevalence of this disease. On the one hand, the frequency of detection of thyroid cancer is associated with the introduction of a number of modern methods of examining patients and the increased oncological alertness of doctors. On the other hand, there is evidence of an increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer associated with an unfavorable environmental situation. An example of this is an increase in the frequency of thyroid damage in people exposed to radiation after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. There is evidence that in Japan, thyroid cancer is detected 10 times more often among the population that has undergone nuclear bombing than among other residents of the country. Exogenous risk factors include external x-ray irradiation, previously carried out for medical purposes for various benign and non-tumor diseases of the head and neck. It is believed that exogenous factors are able to more or less affect the thyroid gland and cause a number of molecular changes in it that lead to the development of cancer. The purpose of this review was to summarize the current knowledge of the molecular aspects of thyroid cancer.