Geographical correlation between incidence of benign disease and that of cancer of the thyroid among the population of the Rhône-Alpes Région of France.

Objective: To analyze, at a population level, the relation between the incidences of benign thyroid diseases in patients submitted to surgery and that of thyroid cancers based on their respective geographical distributions.

Methods: The study included 3169 cases (691 cancers and 2478 benign diseases) operated on in 2002 in the Rhône-Alpes région, which is subdivided into eight départements and 311 cantons.

Results: The total thyroid intervention rate was 54.