Overall, thyroid cancer is a rare disease and a population based screening programme is not indicated.
However, people with a family history of medullary thyroid cancer, MEN (multiple endocrine neoplasia) syndrome or the rare other syndromes associated with a genetic predisposition to the disease must be screened - indeed, if a patient is diagnosed with medullary cancer, it is required that the doctor rules out the inherited MEN syndrome and screens for phaeochromocytoma and hyperparathyroidism - concomitants of the inherited syndrome.
