The study design strengthens the validity of these results. The administrative health databases from Ontario are more than 95% complete for cancer diagnosis and procedures. 6 By capturing an entire population, our study was less susceptible to the types of selection biases and confounding that may have influenced other studies.Limitations to this study include the lack of patientspecific clinical information such as results of ultrasonography and pathologic tests. In addition, changes in specimen management and diagnostic criteria over time may have influenced the rate of carcinoma because of more incidentally found microcarcinomas. Although the rate of carcinoma may have increased, these diagnoses are likely predominantly due to a clinically irrelevant entity.Based on a large provincial population followed longterm after initially benign results of thyroid biopsy, the rate of malignant neoplasms was low, which questions the need of follow-up biopsies for all patients. Because cumulative risk of thyroid cancer in these patients is higher than the baseline lifetime risk of the population, further large risk stratification studies incorporating standard ultrasound biopsy data are needed to identify those requiring long-term follow-up.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.