Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 26;22(1):1018.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-022-10069-6.

The co-occurrence of both breast- and differentiated thyroid cancer: incidence, association and clinical implications for daily practice

Marceline W Piek  1 , Jan Paul de Boer  2 , Frederieke van Duijnhoven  1 , Jacqueline E van der Wal  3 , Menno Vriens  4 , Rachel S van Leeuwaarde  2   5 , Iris M C van der Ploeg  6
Affiliations

The co-occurrence of both breast- and differentiated thyroid cancer: incidence, association and clinical implications for daily practice

Marceline W Piek et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer (BC) and differentiated thyroid cancer (TC) are two common cancer types with the highest incidence in women. BC and TC can develop synchronous or metachronous and the occurrence of both is higher than expected by chance. This study aimed to examine the association between BC and TC in the Netherlands.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study during the period of 1989-2020 retrieved from the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR). Patients diagnosed with BC-TC and BC alone as control group and TC-BC and TC alone as control group were included. The primary outcome was the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of BC-TC and TC-BC. Secondary outcomes included data on the demographics, type of malignancy, treatment and overall survival (OS).

Results: The incidence of TC among 318.002 women with BC (BC-TC) was 0.1% (423 patients) (SIR = 1.86 (95% CI: 1.40-2.32)) and the incidence of BC among 12,370 patients with TC (TC-BC) was 2.9% (355 patients) (SIR = 1.46 (95% CI: 1.09-1.83)). BC-TC patients were younger compared to the BC alone group at BC diagnosis (55 vs 60 years, p < 0.001). The age-adjusted odds ratio to develop TC was not significantly increased for patients who received chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Most TC cases were synchronous tumors after BC diagnosis (19%) with a TNM stage 1. Only 6% of the BC tumors after TC occurred synchronous with a TNM stage 1 in most cases. The OS of all groups was the most favorable in patients with both BC and TC compared to BC- and TC alone.

Conclusion and relevance: The SIR of TC after BC diagnosis and BC after TC diagnosis was higher than predicted based on the rates of the general population. TC and BC as second primary tumors were diagnosed in an early stage and did not affect overall survival. Therefore, Dutch women who have been treated for BC or TC require no special surveillance for their thyroid- and breast gland.

Keywords: Association; Incidence; Reast cancer; Survival; Thyroid cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of patient-selection
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Histograms of the distrubition of new TC-BC (a) and BC-TC (b) patients
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Kaplan Meier plot of overall survival of BC-TC patients and BC alone patients
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Kaplan Meier plot of overall survival of TC-BC group and TC alone group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M, et al. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int J Cancer. 2015;136:E359–86. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29210. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nielsen Sarah M, White Michael G, Hong Susan, et al. The Breast-Thyroid Cancer Link: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2016;25(2):231–238. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-15-0833. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Morrow M, Burstein HJ, Harris JR. Malignant tumors of the breast. 2015.
    1. Howlader, N., Noone, A.M., Krapcho, M., et al. (2019) SEER Explorer. Breast Cancer-Stage Distribution of SEER Incidence Cases, 2007–2016 by Sex. National Cancer Institute, Bethesda.
    1. Mellemkjær L, Christensen J, Frederiksen K, et al. Risk of primary non-breast cancer after female breast cancer by age at diagnosis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2011;20(8):1784–1792. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-11-0009. - DOI - PubMed