Endocrine Abstracts

Few data on prevalence of thyroid diseases in neoplastic groups of patients has been reported. A slight increased prevalence of hypothyroidism and autoimmune thyroiditis in patients with breast cancer and cutaneous melanoma are been described.

Aim: Of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of thyroid diseases in a group of non-endocrine neoplasm consecutively evaluated by the oncologist and endocrinologist in a iodine-sufficient area of north-east Italy. Three hundred twenty two patients (Group A)(128 women and 194 men, aged 38–88 years, median 65 years) were observed at the Department of Medicine (Endocrine Unit and Day-Hospital Unit) between 2007 and 2010 and compared with a group of three hundred consecutively hospitalized patient for non-oncological diseases of similar age and sex (Group B). 64 pts of group A were affected by pulmonary, 56 by breast, 84 by colon, 35 by gastrointestinal-biliary-pancreatic and 32 by urogenital cancer; 13 pts were affected by other neoplasms. Thyroid diseases were present in 9.9% of patients (32 pts) of group A (female 13.2% and male 7.7% of total group; 2.1% hypothyroidism, 2.4% autoimmune thyroid disease, 0.6% nodular toxic goiter and 6.0% multinodular nontoxic goiter) compared with 14.3% (43 pts) of group B (female 13.0%, male 5.4%; P<0.01; 4.1% hypothyroidism, 5.0% autoimmune thyroid disease, 1.0% nodular toxic goiter and 4.2% multinodular nontoxic goiter). The prevalence of thyroid disease was 9.3% in pulmonary, 12.5% in breast, 7.1% in colon, 11.4% in gastrointestinal–biliary–pancreatic and 17.1% in urogenital cancers, 0% in other neoplasms.

In conclusion, these data shows that in this group of patients the prevalence of thyroid diseases is lower to that of a general non-oncologic hospital population and this may be due to the fact that patients were predominantly male. The higher prevalence of thyroid disease is observed in the urogenital and mammary cancer.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.