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Diabetes treatment fails to increase thyroid cancer risk in postmenopausal women
Postmenopausal women are not at increased risk for thyroid cancer if they have diabetes or are undergoing treatment for diabetes, according to recent study findings.
Juhua Luo, PhD, assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the School of Public Health – Bloomington, Indiana University, and colleagues evaluated data from the Women’s Health Initiative on 147,934 women free of known cancer at baseline to determine whether diabetes, diabetes treatment and thyroid cancer risk are associated.
Follow-up was conducted for a median of 15.9 years.
At baseline, 4.2% of all participants had diabetes; 21.5% were not receiving treatment or it was unknown if they were, 14.8% used metformin, 41.1% used other oral medications and 22.7% used insulin.
Throughout follow-up, there were 391 thyroid cancers.
Regardless of type or treatment or duration, diabetes was not found to increase the risk for thyroid cancer (HR = 1.09; 95% CI, 0.79-1.52). Similarly, no increased risk for thyroid cancer was found with the use of metformin (HR = 1.07; 95% CI, 0.44-2.56).
In a sensitivity analysis to determine the risk for papillary thyroid cancer, no significant association was found between cancer and diabetes.
“The findings from our study do not support the hypothesis that diabetes, or treatment of diabetes, are associated with risk of thyroid cancer among postmenopausal women,” the researchers wrote. “Studies that specifically assess prediabetes, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance may add important information.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.