The National Symposium of THYROCHEM was co-organized by the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health and the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The symposium started with welcome speeches from

–      Ms. Irini Hadjicharalambous, on behalf of the Ministry of Health

–      Ms. Eleni Loukaidou, on behalf of the municipality of Nicosia

–      Ms. Kalipso Sepou, on behalf of the Research Promotion Foundation of Cyprus

All three speakers highlighted the importance of the THYROCHEM project in promoting research and co-operation on the field of thyroid disorders.

The main part of the event focused on the discussion of the THYROCHEM findings as they were presented by Dr Makris and Ms Gaengler. The main findings of THYROCHEM as they were presented in the symposium can be summarized in the following:

–      Bisphenol A (BPA) was detected in the samples of all the participants. This fact indicates that exposures are widespread in both the female populations of Cyprus and Romania. Exposures are more likely driven by the use of products such as canned food, personal care products or cosmetics.

–      BPA levels were overall higher among the Romanian participants in comparison with the Cypriot participants.

–      Bisphenol F, a compound used as alternative to BPA a wide variety of products along with the chlorinated derivatives of BPA (ClBPA and 3,5Cl-2BPA) were also detected in all the study participants.

–      Iodine was also measured in the study population. Overall the iodine levels of the Romanian participants were higher than those of the Cypriot participants. Given that this is the first study conducted on the Republic of Cyprus the researchers stressed the need for additional evaluation of the Cypriot population’s iodine levels in order to estimate the need for possible interventions such as salt iodization that is currently not conducted in the country contrary to Romania that has a law for iodine fortification of several food products since 2004.

The rest of the presentations were given by Associate Professor who was the Principal Investigator for the Romanian leg of the study and currently is also the president of the Romanian Society of Cancer, Dr Savvas Frangou, nuclear physician and the director of the Thyroid Cancer Unit of the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center and Dr Stephania Papatheodorou, lecturer at the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health. The first two speakers explained the epidemiology of thyroid cancer in Romania and Cyprus respectively. Dr Papatheodorou focused on pregnancy outcomes in women diagnosed with thyroid nodules or thyroid cancer.

The event was attended by approximately 50 participants among which several of the study participants that we invited. Moreover it had the support of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation and the newspaper Kathimerini and it was widely covered by the local media.