Young cancer survivors have high risk of endocrine diseases

(HealthDay)—Adolescent and young adult cancer survivors have a 73 percent higher risk of endocrine diseases, according to a study published online June 29 in JAMA Network Open.

Mette Vestergaard Jensen, M.D., from the Danish Cancer Society Research Center in Copenhagen, and colleagues used the Danish Cancer Registry to investigate the lifetime risks of endocrine late effects of cancer and cancer treatment in 32,548 adolescent and young adult cancer survivors (1976 through 2009). Patients were matched by age and sex to a reference cohort randomly selected from the Danish Civil Registration system, and analyses were done from July 2015 through February 2018.

The researchers found that 6.5 percent of survivors had at least one hospital contact for an endocrine disease, compared to the 3.8 percent that were expected (rate ratio [RR], 1.73). The RRs were highest for testicular hypofunction (75.12), ovarian hypofunction (14.65), and pituitary hypofunction (11.14). Thyroid disease (absolute excess risk [AER], 38.0 percent), testicular dysfunction (AER, 17.1 percent), and diabetes (AER, 14.4 percent) were the leading reasons for hospital contacts. Risk of any endocrine disease was highest among leukemia survivors (RR, 3.97), and Hodgkin lymphoma survivors had the highest disease-specific excess risk for hypothyroidism (AER, 362 per 100 000 person-years).

"The increased risk for endocrine diseases in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors indicates the need for counseling and follow-up, and could guide future preventive measures and surveillance strategies," the authors write.

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