Perinatal Exposures and Thyroid Cancer Risk
Thyroid cancer incidence is much higher in females than males, and this sex difference begins in adolescence and peaks during the reproductive years. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is leading several studies to determine whether this difference is artifactual (i.e., due to differences in detection and diagnosis) or due to sex differences in underlying genetic, hormonal, lifestyle, behavioral, or environmental factors.
In collaboration with researchers in the Nordic countries, NCI linked thyroid cancer incidence data from the national cancer and medical birth registries in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. They found that multiple perinatal characteristics and exposures, including maternal thyroid conditions and pregnancy complications, maternal smoking, older age at first pregnancy, birth size, and neonatal diagnoses of jaundice or congenital hypothyroidism, were related to:
Using data from the Finnish Maternity Cohort, the NCI led another study to assess whether high or low levels of sex steroid hormones and thyroid hormones measured in early pregnancy are associated with risk of maternal thyroid cancer. They found that thyroid antibody positivity and high thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO-Ab) and thyroglobulin antibody (Tg-Ab) titers were strongly associated with later risk of thyroid cancer.
For more information, contact Cari Kitahara.