A study on the frequency of thyroid nodules and uterine fibroids in Chinese breast cancer patients

Background:Single or multiple thyroid nodules and uterine fibroids are the most common benign gynecologic disease.An increasing number of breast cancer are accompanied with thyroid nodules or uterine fibroids or both of them.However,the incidence of thyroid nodules or uterine fibroids in patients with different subtypes of breast cancer is unclear.Objective:To study the incidence of thyroid nodules or uterine fibroids in patients with different subtypes of breast cancer.Methods:A retrospective cohort study conducted in the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine(China)that included 1,322 female cancer survivors who went to our hospital from January 2014 to November 2019.In this study,we evaluated the frequency of thyroid nodules and uterine fibroids in breast cancer survivors in comparison with other cancer survivors.Besides,we compare the frequency of thyroid nodules and uterine fibroids among different luminal breast cancer.Results:In this study,there were 245 breast cancer survivors,including 58 cases with thyroid nodule,52 cases with uterine fibroids,17 cases with both,152 cases with none.And 1,077 other cancer survivors were collected,including 142 cases with thyroid nodule,172 cases with uterine fibroids,25 cases with both,788 cases with none.According to statistical analysis,the incidence of thyroid nodule and uterine fibroids in breast cancer patients is significantly higher than that in non-breast cancer patients(P<0.01 and P<0.05).Between the molecular classification of breast cancer,among 245 BC patients,58 were combined with thyroid nodule,including 57 cases of luminal-A type BC and 22 cases of combined thyroid nodule;101 cases of luminal-B type BC and 20 cases of combined thyroid nodule;50 cases of HER2-positive over expression type BC and 13 cases of combined thyroid nodule;37 cases of TNBC and 3 cases of combined thyroid nodule,Patients with luminal-A BC have a higher incidence of thyroid nodules compared to other types of BC.Among 245 BC patients,there were 52 cases with uterine fibroids,including 57 cases of luminal-A type BC,5 cases with uterine fibroids;101 cases of luminal-B type BC,32 cases with uterine fibroids;50 cases of HER2-positive over expression type BC,11 cases with uterine fibroids;37 cases of TNBC,4 cases with uterine fibroids.Luminal-B breast cancer is more likely to suffer from uterine fibroids than other types of breast cancer.In addition,breast cancer patients with both thyroid nodules and uterine fibroids had significantly higher luminal-B than other subtypes.Conclusions:This study demonstrates that breast cancer women have a significantly greater incidence rate of thyroid nodules and uterine fibroids,and is higher at Luminal A or Luminal B.We consider these findings may contribute to the identification of liver channel of foot jueyin following underlying this disease association.