Thyroid cancer prevalent among transgender female veterans

There is a high prevalence of thyroid cancer among transgender female veterans, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Thyroid Association, held from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C.

John Christensen, M.D., from the University of California Davis, and colleagues examined the prevalence of thyroid cancer in transgender female veterans (January 2017 to January 2022). The authors reviewed individual charts to identify trends in clinical presentation.

The researchers found that the prevalence of thyroid cancer among transgender female veterans was 0.341 percent, with 29 patients having papillary, seven having follicular, and three having Hürthle cell carcinoma. At the time of diagnosis, the average age was 53.8 years. Nearly three in 10 patients (29.4 percent) had extrathyroidal disease at diagnosis. Of the 11 participants receiving estrogen gender-affirming hormone therapy at diagnosis, treatment began an average of 6.85 years before diagnosis.

"About one-third of our patients had been receiving estrogen for an average of over five years before diagnosis, which suggests estrogen gender-affirming hormone therapy is a potentially important risk factor," the authors write.