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Metabolic factors and risk of thyroid cancer in the Metabolic syndrome and Cancer project (Me-Can)

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Abstract

Objective

To investigate metabolic factors and their possible impact on risk of thyroid cancer.

Methods

A prospective cohort study was conducted based on seven population-based cohorts in Norway, Austria, and Sweden, in the Metabolic syndrome and Cancer project (Me-Can). Altogether 578,700 men and women with a mean age of 44.0 years at baseline were followed for on average 12.0 years. Relative risk of incident thyroid cancer was assessed by levels of BMI, blood pressure, and blood levels of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, and by a combined metabolic syndrome (MetS) score. Risk estimates were investigated for quintiles, and a z score distribution of exposures was analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression.

Results

During follow-up, 255 women and 133 men were diagnosed with thyroid cancer. In women, there was an inverse association between glucose and thyroid cancer risk, with adjusted RR: 95% CI was 0.61 (0.41–0.90), p trend = 0.02 in the fifth versus the first quintile, and a positive association between BMI and thyroid cancer risk with a significant trend over quintiles. There was no association between the other metabolic factors, single or combined (Met-S), and thyroid cancer.

Conclusion

In women, BMI was positively, while blood glucose levels were inversely, associated with thyroid cancer.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by the World Cancer Research Fund (Grant 2007/09), The Swedish Research Council, The Ernhold Lundström Foundation, The Einar and Inga Nilsson Foundation, The Malmö University Hospital Cancer Research Fund, The Malmö University Hospital Funds and Donations, The Crafoord Foundation and the Mossfelt Foundation. The authors thank, in Norway, the screening team at the former National Health Screening Service of Norway, now the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the services of CONOR, and the contributing research centres delivering data to CONOR; in the Vorarlberg Health Monitoring and Prevention Programme, Elmar Stimpfl, the database manager, Karin Parschalk at the cancer registry, and Elmar Bechter and Hans-Peter Bischof, medical doctors at the Health Department of the Vorarlberg State Government; in the Västerbotten Intervention Project, Åsa Ågren, the project database manager at the Medical Biobank, Umeå University, Sweden; and in the Malmö Preventive Project, Anders Dahlin, the database manager, and finally, all the study participants.

Conflict of interest

The authors state no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Skåne University Hospital Lund and Lund University, 221 85, Lund, Sweden

    Martin Almquist

  2. Department of Surgery, Skåne University Hospital Malmö and Lund University, Malmö, Sweden

    Dorthe Johansen & Jonas Manjer

  3. Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo/Bergen, Norway

    Tone Björge, Anders Engeland & Randi Selmer

  4. Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

    Hanno Ulmer

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden

    Björn Lindkvist

  6. Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Tanja Stocks, Christel Häggström & Pär Stattin

  7. Institute of Health Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Tanja Stocks

  8. Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Nutritional Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Göran Hallmans

  9. Institute of Epidemiology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

    Kilian Rapp

  10. Department of Radiation Science, Oncology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Håkan Jonsson

  11. Agency for Social- and Preventive Medicine, Bregenz, Austria

    Guenter Diem

  12. Cancer Registry of Norway, Institute of Population-based Cancer Research, Oslo, Norway

    Steinar Tretli

  13. The Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden

    Jonas Manjer

  14. Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Tone Björge & Anders Engeland

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  1. Martin Almquist
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Correspondence to Martin Almquist.

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Almquist, M., Johansen, D., Björge, T. et al. Metabolic factors and risk of thyroid cancer in the Metabolic syndrome and Cancer project (Me-Can). Cancer Causes Control 22, 743–751 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9747-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9747-2

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