Thyroid cancer patients more likely to develop type 2 diabetes after thyroidectomy: Study

Written By : Medha Baranwal |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2021-11-13T09:56:33+05:30 | Updated On 13 Nov 2021 9:56 AM IST

Korea: Patients with thyroid cancer who underwent thyroidectomy are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus than the matched controls, finds a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The researchers found a U-shaped dose-dependent association between levothyroxine dosage and the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Abnormal thyroid function following thyroidectomy and subsequent suppression of thyroid-stimulating hormone can have harmful effects on glucose homeostasis in patients with thyroid cancer. Hye Jin Yoo, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, and colleagues aimed to investigate whether thyroidectomy increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in thyroid cancer patients and to explore the association between levothyroxine dosage and type 2 diabetes risk.

For this purpose, they designed a retrospective population-based cohort study that included 36,377 thyroid cancer patients without known diabetes who underwent thyroidectomy between 2004 and 2013. Using 1:1 propensity score matching, the researchers selected matched non-thyroid cancer subjects.

The main outcome was newly developed type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The study revealed the following findings:

Thyroid cancer patients who underwent thyroidectomy had a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus than the matched controls (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.43).
Among thyroid cancer patients, when the second quartile group (in terms of the mean levothyroxine dosage; 101–127 μg/day) was considered the reference group, the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus increased in the first quartile (<101 μg/day; HR: 1.45) and fourth quartile groups (≥150 μg/day; HR: 1.37); meanwhile, the risk decreased in the third quartile group (128–149 μg/day; HR: 0.91).

"Thyroid cancer patients who underwent thyroidectomy were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus than the matched controls," the researchers wrote. "There was a U-shaped dose-dependent relationship between the levothyroxine dosage and type 2 diabetes mellitus risk."

Reference:

Eun Roh, Eunjin Noh, Soon Young Hwang, Jung A Kim, Eyun Song, Minjeong Park, Kyung Mook Choi, Sei Hyun Baik, Geum Joon Cho, Hye Jin Yoo, Increased risk of type 2 diabetes in patients with thyroid cancer after thyroidectomy: A nationwide cohort study, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2021;, dgab776, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab776

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolismthyroidectomytype 2 diabetesthyroid cancer

Source : Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

Medha Baranwal

MSc. Biotechnology

Medha Baranwal joined Medical Dialogues as an Editor in 2018 for Speciality Medical Dialogues. She covers several medical specialties including Cardiac Sciences, Dentistry, Diabetes and Endo, Diagnostics, ENT, Gastroenterology, Neurosciences, and Radiology. She has completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from DU and then pursued Masters in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a working experience of 5 years in the field of medical research writing, scientific writing, content writing, and content management. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751