According to a study by the University of Chicago (United States) published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, the journal of the American Cancer Federation, women who have survived a breast cancer Where thyroid face a high risk of developing other cancer. US researchers looked at the PubMed medical records and looked at breast and thyroid cancer cases over several decades. They thus identified a large number of women who had survived cancer and who developed the other type of the disease later.
Between 1.18 and 1.55 times more risk
Their results showed that women who survived breast cancer were 1.55 times more likely to develop thyroid cancer than women who did not have breast cancer, and women who survived. thyroid cancer were 1.18 times more likely to develop breast cancer than a woman without thyroid cancer.
To explain this link, the researchers put forward several hypotheses.
• Increased surveillance. A patient who has had cancer will be followed closely for years after her illness and a secondary cancer is therefore more likely to be detected, even at an early stage.
• There would be hormonal risk factors common to both diseases. Studies suggest that exposure to estrogen and thyroid stimulating hormones could, in theory, contribute to the development of secondary breast or thyroid cancer. The researchers stress that new studies would be needed to confirm the existence of shared hormonal factors.
• The effect of treatment. Most early-stage breast cancers are treated with surgery, followed by radiation therapy. Radiation exposure during treatment is believed to be a risk factor for thyroid cancer. But according to the researchers, radiation exposure to the thyroid during chest radiation therapy can be greatly improved with good thyroid protection.
• Genetic. Another theory is that a genetic mutation could be responsible for the link between breast and thyroid cancers.
But this study still has some limitations because it was not able to identify the time lapse between the appearance of the two cancers, which does not allow us to know what is the role of surveillance in the increase in cancer. risk.
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