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Association between thyroid gland diseases and breast cancer: a case–control study

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

At the present time, there is no consensus on the association between benign thyroid diseases and breast cancer (BC). Therefore, the aim of this study is to help shed some light on the association between hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and thyroiditis and breast cancer risk.

Methods

Use of the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA) enabled us to perform a retrospective case–control study of 7408 women aged between 18 and 80, who were treated for an initial breast cancer diagnosis in a general practice in the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2015 (index date). Patients with a previous cancer diagnosis and an observation time of less than 12 months prior to the index date were excluded. The control group consisted of 7408 healthy women, who were matched to cases 1:1 by age, body mass index, hormone replacement therapy, and physician. The main outcome parameters of this study were the presence of thyroid disease (hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, struma, and thyroiditis) and the TSH values in the two groups. A univariate logistic regression model was used to investigate the association between benign thyroid diseases, TSH values, and BC.

Results

The mean age was 58.4 years in both groups. We found a significant association between thyroiditis and BC (OR: 1.91, p = 0.01) and were able to refute the association between hyperthyroidism/hypothyroidism and BC. We also found that thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) had no significant effect on breast cancer risk.

Conclusion

Many experimental studies suggest a link between hyperthyroidism/hypothyroidism and BC. We were able to demonstrate an epidemiological association between thyroiditis and an increased BC risk. This shows the need for close monitoring for BC in women with thyroiditis.

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Funding

The authors have received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Laura Bach & Matthias Kalder

  2. Epidemiology, IQVIA, Main Airport Center, Unterschweinstiege 2-14, 60549, Frankfurt, Germany

    Karel Kostev

  3. Department of General, Thoracic, Vascular, and Transplantation Surgery, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Leif Schiffmann

Authors
  1. Laura Bach
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  2. Karel Kostev
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  3. Leif Schiffmann
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  4. Matthias Kalder
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karel Kostev.

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Conflict of interest

LB, MK, LS, KK declares that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

German law allows the use of anonymous electronic medical records for research purposes under certain conditions. According to this legislation, it is not necessary to obtain informed consent from patients or approval from a medical ethics committee for this type of observational study that contains no directly identifiable data.

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Bach, L., Kostev, K., Schiffmann, L. et al. Association between thyroid gland diseases and breast cancer: a case–control study. Breast Cancer Res Treat 182, 207–213 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05675-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05675-6

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