Are Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases a Risk Factor for Thyroid Cancers?

Abstract

Aim:Autoimmune thyroid diseases are common in the general population. Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of thyroid carcinoma in patients with Basedow-Graves (BG) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT).Materials and Methods:1,668 patients underwent thyroid surgery at our institution. Of these, 138 patients were diagnosed with HT (126 women, 12 men) and 78 patients were diagnosed with BG (61 women, 17 men). HT and BG patients diagnosed with TC were identified.Results:TC was seen in 23.1% of BG patients, 52.2% of HT patients, and 38.7% of nodular goiter (NG) patients. In the comparison of BG patients with HT patients, TC was observed to be more common in HT patients (p<0.001). Moreover, BG patients were compared with NG patients, and TC was detected to be less common in BG patients (p=0.008). The comparison of HT patients (average age: 46.53 years) with NG patients (average age: 51.02 years) revealed that TC was seen more often (p=0.003) and in the earlier age (p=0.019) in HT patients. It was found that, in patients with BG, the frequency of papillary microcarcinoma was higher (p=0.004) and tumor size was smaller, compared to HT and NG patients.Conclusion:HT is associated with an increased risk of developing TC. Nevertheless, a pathogenesis linking these diseases remains unclear. Therefore, more studies on the subject are needed.

Keywords

• thyroid cancer
• hashimoto’s thyroiditis
• basedow-graves disease
• nodular goiter