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Family history of malignant and benign thyroid diseases and risk of thyroid cancer: a population-based case–control study in New Caledonia

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Abstract

Purpose

Exceptionally high incidence rates of thyroid cancer have been observed in New Caledonia, particularly in Melanesian women, but familial aggregation of thyroid diseases in this population is unknown. We study the association between family history of malignant or benign thyroid diseases and non-medullary thyroid cancer in this country.

Methods

We conducted a population-based case–control study including 332 cases with papillary or follicular carcinoma diagnosed in 1993–1999 and 412 controls, matched by sex and 5-year age-group.

Results

Thyroid cancer was associated with a history of thyroid cancer in first-degree relatives (odds ratio (OR), 3.2; 95 % CI, 1.6–6.2) and with a family history of multinodular goiter (OR, 3.6; 95 % CI, 1.9–7.0). The ORs did not change by age at diagnosis and with the number of affected relatives. The study provides evidence that the familial component of thyroid cancer is particularly strong in men. Thyroid cancer was not associated with a family history of thyroid diseases in Melanesians from the Loyalty Islands, the area with the highest incidence rates for thyroid cancer, possibly indicating a high frequency of genetic susceptibility variants and lack of genetic variation in this population subgroup.

Conclusion

Overall our findings confirm an elevated risk of thyroid cancer in individuals with a family history of malignant or benign thyroid diseases, particularly in Melanesians where familial aggregation of thyroid cancer had never been investigated before. The study of genetic variants in candidate susceptibility genes for thyroid cancer may help clarifying the absence of an association in the subgroup of Melanesians from the Loyalty Islands.

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Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

FRR:

Familial relative risk

OR:

Odds ratio

NMTC:

Non-medullary thyroid cancer

SIR:

Standardized incidence ratio

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the “Fondation de France,” the “Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer,” and the “Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Environnement et du Travail (AFSSET).” The authors wish to thank Dr Jean-Paul Grangeon (Direction des Affaires Sanitaires et Sociales Nouvelle-Calédonie) as well as the Provincial Health Authorities (DPASS Sud, DPASS Nord, DPASS Îles) for their support during data collection. They are particularly grateful to Michèle Reynier who coordinated the interviews of study subjects across New Caledonia.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Epidemiology of Cancer, CESP Centre for research in Epidemiology and Population Health, UMR-S 1018 Equipe 6, INSERM, Université Paris-Sud, 16 Avenue Paul Vaillant-Couturier, 94807, Villejuif Cedex, France

    Christophe Leux, Thérèse Truong & Pascal Guénel

  2. Université Paris Sud 11, UMRS 1018, 94807, Villejuif, France

    Christophe Leux, Thérèse Truong & Pascal Guénel

  3. INSERM U625, Rennes, France

    Claire Petit

  4. Laboratory of Anatomy and Cytopathology, Nouméa, New Caledonia, France

    Dominique Baron-Dubourdieu

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  1. Christophe Leux
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  2. Thérèse Truong
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  3. Claire Petit
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  4. Dominique Baron-Dubourdieu
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  5. Pascal Guénel
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Correspondence to Pascal Guénel.

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Leux, C., Truong, T., Petit, C. et al. Family history of malignant and benign thyroid diseases and risk of thyroid cancer: a population-based case–control study in New Caledonia. Cancer Causes Control 23, 745–755 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-9944-7

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