Reproductive and menstrual factors and thyroid cancer among Japanese women: the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study.
OBJECTIVE
Thyroid cancer is more frequent in women than in men, suggesting the potential role of reproductive and menstrual factors in this cancer. To investigate the association with these factors, we examined 37,986 women involved in the Japan Collaborative Cohort (JACC) Study from 1988 to 1997.


METHODS
Reproductive and menstrual factors were assessed with a self-administered questionnaire at baseline. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of thyroid cancer incidence were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression.


RESULTS
Eighty-six new cases of thyroid cancer were recorded during 379,281 person-years of follow-up. Overall incidence rate was 22.7 per 100,000 person-years, with a diagnosed peak of 38.2 per 100,000 at 55-59 years old. Multivariate HRs of 0.56 (95% CI 0.25-1.24) and 0.52 (95% CI 0.24-1.16) were observed for women who had experienced pregnancy or a live birth, respectively, but without statistical significance. Further, we saw no associations with other factors, such as age at menarche, age at menopause, age at first birth, or hormone use.


CONCLUSIONS
There was no significant association between thyroid cancer and reproductive and menstrual factors in the present study. Additional cohort studies should further examine this possible relationship among Japanese women.
Pham
Truong-Minh
TM
Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan. ptrminh@med.uoeh-u.ac.jp
Fujino
Yoshihisa
Y
Mikami
Haruo
H
Okamoto
Naoyuki
N
Hoshiyama
Yoshiharu
Y
Tamakoshi
Akiko
A
Matsuda
Shinya
S
Yoshimura
Takesumi
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008019:Life Style; D008572:Menarche; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D017584:Reproductive History; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016387:Women's Health