Abstract
Thyroid cancer incidence has been increasing more rapidly over time than the occurrence of cancers of other sites, and interest in potential adverse relations of diabetes and lack of physical activity to thyroid cancer risk is accumulating. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published epidemiologic studies on the relations of physical activity and diabetes to thyroid cancer according to the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines. Published studies were identified through a search in MEDLINE and EMBASE. Random-effects models were used to summarize thyroid cancer risk estimates comparing high versus low levels of physical activity, and separately, comparing individuals with diabetes versus those without diabetes. Meta-regression analyses were performed to evaluate potential effect modification by study design and thyroid cancer risk factors. Information was extracted from seven studies of physical activity and thyroid cancer and from six studies of diabetes and thyroid cancer. The number of individuals from studies on physical activity was 939,305 (yielding 2,250 incident thyroid cancer cases) and from studies on diabetes it was 960,840 (yielding 1,230 cases). The summary relative risk (RR) estimate from cohort and case–control studies combined indicated no association between physical activity and thyroid cancer (summary RR 1.06, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.79–1.42). Subgroup-analyses revealed a significant positive association between physical activity and thyroid cancer in cohort studies (summary RR 1.28; 95 % CI 1.01–1.63), whereas the relation was suggestively inverse in case–control studies (summary RR 0.70; 95 % CI 0.48–1.03; p for heterogeneity = 0.005). Individuals with diabetes showed a borderline statistically significant increased risk of thyroid cancer compared with those without diabetes (summary RR 1.17; 95 % CI 0.99–1.39). The relations of physical activity and diabetes to thyroid cancer were not modified by sex, number of adjustment factors, and adjustments for adiposity, smoking, and study quality. In this comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis, no significant association between physical activity and thyroid cancer was found. Diabetes showed a suggestive positive relation with risk of thyroid cancer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kilfoy BA, Devesa SS, Ward MH, Zhang YW, Rosenberg PS, Holford TR, et al. Gender is an age-specific effect modifier for papillary cancers of the thyroid gland. Cancer Epidemiol Biomar. 2009;18(4):1092–100. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.Epi-08-0976.
Kent WD, Hall SF, Isotalo PA, Houlden RL, George RL, Groome PA. Increased incidence of differentiated thyroid carcinoma and detection of subclinical disease. CMAJ. 2007;177(11):1357–61. doi:10.1503/cmaj.061730.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Facts about physical activity. http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/data/facts.html. Accessed 16 Mar 2013.
King H, Aubert RE, Herman WH. Global burden of diabetes, 1995–2025: prevalence, numerical estimates, and projections. Diabetes Care. 1998;21(9):1414–31.
Zhao ZG, Guo XG, Ba CX, Wang W, Yang YY, Wang J, et al. Overweight, obesity and thyroid cancer risk: a meta-analysis of cohort studies. J Int Med Res. 2012;40(6):2041–50.
Renehan AG, Tyson M, Egger M, Heller RF, Zwahlen M. Body-mass index and incidence of cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective observational studies. Lancet. 2008;371(9612):569–78. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60269-X.
Kitahara CM, Platz EA, Freeman LE, Hsing AW, Linet MS, Park Y, et al. Obesity and thyroid cancer risk among U.S. men and women: a pooled analysis of five prospective studies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2011;20(3):464–72. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-10-1220.
Kolonel LN, Hankin JH, Wilkens LR, Fukunaga FH, Hinds MW. An epidemiologic study of thyroid cancer in Hawaii. Cancer Causes Control. 1990;1(3):223–34.
Lee SM, Kwak KH. Risk factors and a predictive model for thyroid cancer in Korean women. Cancer Nurs. 2010;33(4):310–9. doi:10.1097/NCC.0b013e3181cd2844.
Rossing MA, Remler R, Voigt LF, Wicklund KG, Daling JR. Recreational physical activity and risk of papillary thyroid cancer (United States). Cancer Causes Control. 2001;12(10):881–5.
Kitahara CM, Platz EA, Beane Freeman LE, Black A, Hsing AW, Linet MS, et al. Physical activity, diabetes, and thyroid cancer risk: a pooled analysis of five prospective studies. Cancer Causes Control. 2012. doi:10.1007/s10552-012-9896-y.
Kabat GC, Kim MY, Thomson CA, Luo J, Wactawski-Wende J, Rohan TE. Anthropometric factors and physical activity and risk of thyroid cancer in postmenopausal women. Cancer Causes Control. 2012;23(3):421–30. doi:10.1007/s10552-011-9890-9.
Robsahm TE, Hestvik UE, Veierod MB, Fagerlie A, Nystad W, Engebretsen L, et al. Cancer risk in Norwegian world class athletes. Cancer Causes Control. 2010;21(10):1711–9. doi:10.1007/s10552-010-9600-z.
Cash SW, Ma H, Horn-Ross PL, Reynolds P, Canchola AJ, Sullivan-Halley J, et al. Recreational physical activity and risk of papillary thyroid cancer among women in the California Teachers Study. Cancer Epidemiol. 2013;37(1):46–53. doi:10.1016/j.canep.2012.09.003.
Inoue M, Iwasaki M, Otani T, Sasazuki S, Noda M, Tsugane S. Diabetes mellitus and the risk of cancer: results from a large-scale population-based cohort study in Japan. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(17):1871–7. doi:10.1001/archinte.166.17.1871.
Wideroff L, Gridley G, Mellemkjaer L, Chow WH, Linet M, Keehn S, et al. Cancer incidence in a population-based cohort of patients hospitalized with diabetes mellitus in Denmark. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1997;89(18):1360–5.
Chodick G, Heymann AD, Rosenmann L, Green MS, Flash S, Porath A, et al. Diabetes and risk of incident cancer: a large population-based cohort study in Israel. Cancer Causes Control. 2010;21(6):879–87. doi:10.1007/s10552-010-9515-8.
Adami HO, McLaughlin J, Ekbom A, Berne C, Silverman D, Hacker D, et al. Cancer risk in patients with diabetes mellitus. Cancer Causes Control. 1991;2(5):307–14.
Kuriki K, Hirose K, Tajima K. Diabetes and cancer risk for all and specific sites among Japanese men and women. Eur J Cancer Prev Off J Eur Cancer Prev Org. 2007;16(1):83–9. doi:10.1097/01.cej.0000228404.37858.40.
Stroup DF, Berlin JA, Morton SC, Olkin I, Williamson GD, Rennie D, et al. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: a proposal for reporting. Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) group. JAMA, J Am Med Assoc. 2000;283(15):2008–12.
Wells SB, O’Connell D, Peterson J, et al. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomized studies in meta-analyses. www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/oxford.asp. Accessed 16 Mar 2013.
Higgins JP, Thompson SG. Quantifying heterogeneity in a meta-analysis. Stat Med. 2002;21(11):1539–58. doi:10.1002/sim.1186.
Egger M, Davey Smith G, Schneider M, Minder C. Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. BMJ. 1997;315(7109):629–34.
Begg CB, Mazumdar M. Operating characteristics of a rank correlation test for publication bias. Biometrics. 1994;50(4):1088–101.
Viechtbauer W. Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package. J Stat Softw. 2010;36(3):1–48.
Leitzmann MF, Brenner A, Moore SC, Koebnick C, Park Y, Hollenbeck A, et al. Prospective study of body mass index, physical activity and thyroid cancer. Int J Cancer. 2010;126(12):2947–56. doi:10.1002/ijc.24913.
Meinhold CL, Ron E, Schonfeld SJ, Alexander BH, Freedman DM, Linet MS, et al. Nonradiation risk factors for thyroid cancer in the US Radiologic Technologists Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2010;171(2):242–52. doi:10.1093/aje/kwp354kwp354.
Marcello MA, Sampaio AC, Geloneze B, Vasques AC, Assumpcao LV, Ward LS. Obesity and excess protein and carbohydrate consumption are risk factors for thyroid cancer. Nutr Cancer. 2012;64(8):1190–5. doi:10.1080/01635581.2012.721154.
Aschebrook-Kilfoy B, Sabra MM, Brenner A, Moore SC, Ron E, Schatzkin A, et al. Diabetes and thyroid cancer risk in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. Thyroid Off J Am Thyroid Assoc. 2011;21(9):957–63. doi:10.1089/thy.2010.0396.
Tseng CH. Thyroid cancer risk is not increased in diabetic patients. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(12):e53096. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053096.
Chiou WK, Huang BY, Chou WY, Weng HF, Lin JD. Incidences of cancers in diabetic and non-diabetic hospitalized adult patients in Taiwan. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev APJCP. 2011;12(6):1577–81.
Lee MY, Lin KD, Hsiao PJ, Shin SJ. The association of diabetes mellitus with liver, colon, lung, and prostate cancer is independent of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and gout in Taiwanese patients. Metabolism. 2012;61(2):242–9. doi:10.1016/j.metabol.2011.06.020.
Ismail I, Keating SE, Baker MK, Johnson NA. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of aerobic vs. resistance exercise training on visceral fat. Obes Rev. 2012;13(1):68–91. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2011.00931.x.
Shih SR, Chiu WY, Chang TC, Tseng CH. Diabetes and thyroid cancer risk: literature review. Exp Diabetes Res. 2012;2012:578285. doi:10.1155/2012/578285.
La Vecchia C, Ron E, Franceschi S, Dal Maso L, Mark SD, Chatenoud L, et al. A pooled analysis of case-control studies of thyroid cancer. III. Oral contraceptives, menopausal replacement therapy and other female hormones. Cancer Causes Control. 1999;10(2):157–66.
Mitsiades N, Pazaitou-Panayiotou K, Aronis KN, Moon HS, Chamberland JP, Liu X, et al. Circulating adiponectin is inversely associated with risk of thyroid cancer: in vivo and in vitro studies. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;96(12):E2023–8. doi:10.1210/jc.2010-1908jc.2010-1908.
Sigurdson AJ, Hauptmann M, Alexander BH, Doody MM, Thomas CB, Struewing JP, et al. DNA damage among thyroid cancer and multiple cancer cases, controls, and long-lived individuals. Mutat Res. 2005;586(2):173–88. doi:10.1016/j.mrgentox.2005.07.001.
Sato Y, Nanri H, Ohta M, Kasai H, Ikeda M. Increase of human MTH1 and decrease of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine in leukocyte DNA by acute and chronic exercise in healthy male subjects. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2003;305(2):333–8.
Rundle A. Molecular epidemiology of physical activity and cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2005;14(1):227–36.
Ludlow AT, Zimmerman JB, Witkowski S, Hearn JW, Hatfield BD, Roth SM. Relationship between physical activity level, telomere length, and telomerase activity. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008;40(10):1764–71. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e31817c92aa.
Ivanov MK, Akushevich I, Gorski AI, Korelo AM, Kravchenko JS, Maksioutov MA, Tsyb AF. Risk of thyroid cancer after irradiation in children and adults. Curr Oncol. 2005;12(2):55–64.
Wang C, Wang X, Gong G, Ben Q, Qiu W, Chen Y, et al. Increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. Int J Cancer. 2012;130(7):1639–48. doi:10.1002/ijc.26165.
Ben Q, Xu M, Ning X, Liu J, Hong S, Huang W, et al. Diabetes mellitus and risk of pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis of cohort studies. Eur J Cancer. 2011;47(13):1928–37. doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2011.03.003.
Friberg E, Orsini N, Mantzoros CS, Wolk A. Diabetes mellitus and risk of endometrial cancer: a meta-analysis. Diabetologia. 2007;50(7):1365–74. doi:10.1007/s00125-007-0681-5.
Deng L, Gui Z, Zhao L, Wang J, Shen L. Diabetes mellitus and the incidence of colorectal cancer: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Dig Dis Sci. 2012;57(6):1576–85. doi:10.1007/s10620-012-2055-1.
Liao S, Li J, Wei W, Wang L, Zhang Y, Wang C, et al. Association between diabetes mellitus and breast cancer risk: a meta-analysis of the literature. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev APJCP. 2011;12(4):1061–5.
Larsson SC, Orsini N, Brismar K, Wolk A. Diabetes mellitus and risk of bladder cancer: a meta-analysis. Diabetologia. 2006;49(12):2819–23. doi:10.1007/s00125-006-0468-0.
Lee JY, Jeon I, Lee JM, Yoon JM, Park SM. Diabetes mellitus as an independent risk factor for lung cancer: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Eur J Cancer. 2013;49(10):2411–23. doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2013.02.025.
Castillo JJ, Mull N, Reagan JL, Nemr S, Mitri J. Increased incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Blood. 2012;119(21):4845–50. doi:10.1182/blood-2011-06-362830.
Giovannucci E, Harlan DM, Archer MC, Bergenstal RM, Gapstur SM, Habel LA, et al. Diabetes and cancer: a consensus report. Diabetes Care. 2010;33(7):1674–85. doi:10.2337/dc10-0666.
Gallagher EJ, LeRoith D. Diabetes, cancer, and metformin: connections of metabolism and cell proliferation. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2011;1243:54–68. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06285.x.
Thakkar B, Aronis KN, Vamvini MT, Shields K, Mantzoros CS. Metformin and sulfonylureas in relation to cancer risk in type II diabetes patients: a meta-analysis using primary data of published studies. Metabolism. 2013;62(7):922–34. doi:10.1016/j.metabol.2013.01.014.
Soranna D, Scotti L, Zambon A, Bosetti C, Grassi G, Catapano A, et al. Cancer risk associated with use of metformin and sulfonylurea in type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Oncologist. 2012;17(6):813–22. doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2011-0462.
Habib SL, Rojna M. Diabetes and risk of cancer. ISRN Oncol. 2013;2013:583786. doi:10.1155/2013/583786.
Okura Y, Urban LH, Mahoney DW, Jacobsen SJ, Rodeheffer RJ. Agreement between self-report questionnaires and medical record data was substantial for diabetes, hypertension, myocardial infarction and stroke but not for heart failure. J Clin Epidemiol. 2004;57(10):1096–103. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2004.04.005.
Tseng CH. Diabetes and thyroid cancer mortality: a 12-year prospective follow-up of Taiwanese. Eur J Clin Invest. 2013;43(6):595–601. doi:10.1111/eci.12086.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schmid, D., Behrens, G., Jochem, C. et al. Physical activity, diabetes, and risk of thyroid cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Epidemiol 28, 945–958 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-013-9865-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-013-9865-0