The association between diabetes and thyroid cancer risk: a hospital-based case-control study in China

Abstract

Background Previous studies have indicated inconsistent relationships of diabetes with thyroid cancer risk, yet little is known in China. In this study, we aimed to investigate the associations between diabetes, diabetes duration and the risk of thyroid cancer in Chinese population. Methods A 1:1 matched case-control study was performed between 2015 and 2017 in Zhejiang Province including 2,937 thyroid cancer cases and 2,937 healthy controls. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for thyroid cancer were estimated in logistic regression models. Specific effects stratified by age, as well as sex, body mass index (BMI) and family history of diabetes were also examined. Results Overall, neither diabetes (OR = 0.75, 95 % CI: 0.21–2.73) nor diabetes duration (OR = 0.14, 95 % CI: 0.02–1.22 for diabetes duration ≦ 5 years; OR = 2.10, 95 % CI: 0.32–13.94 for diabetes duration > 5 years) was significantly associated with thyroid cancer. In stratified analyses, significant lower risk of thyroid cancer was observed among subjects with diabetes and shorter diabetes duration ( ≦ 5 years), but limited to those who were aged more than 40 years, female, overweight/obese and had positive family history of diabetes. Conclusions Diabetes and shorter diabetes duration were significantly associated with decreased risk of thyroid cancer in individuals characterized by older age, female sex, higher BMI and positive family history of diabetes.

Diabetes Mellitus as a Risk Factor for Different Types of Cancers: A Systematic Review

“…Most of our included studies reported that DM increases the risk of cancer development; however, two studies reported that DM was associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer [14,22]. Some studies reported that the incidence of lung cancer [13], thyroid cancer [21], and bladder cancer [17] was not associated with DM.…”

“…A total of 15 studies were included in this review, with 1,080,106 diabetic patients who developed different types of cancers. Seven studies were conducted in the USA [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], two in China [20,21], one in Canada [22], one in the Australia [23], one in Lithuania [24], one in Poland [25] one in Finland [26] and one in the UK [27]. Regarding the studies' designs; Eight studies were retrospective in nature [13,16,19,20,22,[24][25][26], four were prospective [14,17,23,27], and two were case-control studies [15,21].…”

“…Seven studies were conducted in the USA [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], two in China [20,21], one in Canada [22], one in the Australia [23], one in Lithuania [24], one in Poland [25] one in Finland [26] and one in the UK [27]. Regarding the studies' designs; Eight studies were retrospective in nature [13,16,19,20,22,[24][25][26], four were prospective [14,17,23,27], and two were case-control studies [15,21]. Seven studies included patients with T2DM [16][17][18][19][23][24][25], two studies included patients with T1DM [26,27], and six studies included patients with both type1 and type2 DM [13][14][15][20][21][22].…”

“…Regarding the studies' designs; Eight studies were retrospective in nature [13,16,19,20,22,[24][25][26], four were prospective [14,17,23,27], and two were case-control studies [15,21]. Seven studies included patients with T2DM [16][17][18][19][23][24][25], two studies included patients with T1DM [26,27], and six studies included patients with both type1 and type2 DM [13][14][15][20][21][22]. Lung cancer was reported in two studies [13,19], prostate cancer [16,22], thyroid cancer [21,26], colorectal cancer [18,25], different cancer types [14,27], biliary tract cancer (BTC) [20], breast cancer [15], pancreatic cancer [23], endometrial cancer [24], and bladder cancer [17].…”

“…Seven studies included patients with T2DM [16][17][18][19][23][24][25], two studies included patients with T1DM [26,27], and six studies included patients with both type1 and type2 DM [13][14][15][20][21][22]. Lung cancer was reported in two studies [13,19], prostate cancer [16,22], thyroid cancer [21,26], colorectal cancer [18,25], different cancer types [14,27], biliary tract cancer (BTC) [20], breast cancer [15], pancreatic cancer [23], endometrial cancer [24], and bladder cancer [17]. Most of our included studies reported that DM increases the risk of cancer development; however, two studies reported that DM was associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer [14,22].…”