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The authors of a new study propose a relationship
between the post-surgical use of radioactive iodine (RAI) treatments for
thyroid cancer, and the later development of breast cancer.
Using the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, the researchers found that
young women (30-34 years) with thyroid cancer exhibited the greatest risk
of developing breast cancer.
Women who were between the ages of 40 and 44 at initial
diagnosis of thyroid cancer were also at significantly elevated risk,
with the greatest risk appearing 15-20 years after the thyroid cancer.
The study concluded that premenopausal adult Caucasian
women who are treated for differentiated
thyroid cancer are at increased risk to develop breast cancer five to
20 years later.
This finding suggests that the increased risk of breast
cancer after thyroid cancer is related to the thyroid cancer treatment.
In particular, the RAI treatment is suspected to be
the agent involved in increasing the cancer risk.
The authors' recommendation is for regular follow-up
of all women patients with thyroid cancer and "judicious
use of radioactive iodine as a treatment regimen."
Click
here to read the American Academy of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck
Surgery Foundation release regarding this research.
According to Mary Shomon, the Thyroid
Guide at About.com, "of critical importance to women who have
had RAI treatment for Graves' Disease is the need for a definitive study
looking at whether the lower levels of RAI used to ablate the thyroid
also pose an increased risk of breast cancer. Given that RAI is the preferred
treatment for hyperthyroidism in the U.S., this is an important question."
Annual meeting of
the American Academy of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery Foundation
Washington, D.C, October 2000.
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