A study of risk factors of papillary thyroid carcinoma in the elderly / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the risk factors for thyroid papillary carcinoma in patients aged over 65 years,and to investigate the etiology of thyroid papillary carcinoma.Methods A total of 784 patients with thyroid nodules screened by ultrasound were grouped according to different iodine intakes,gender,age,diet,smoking history and history of radiation therapy.The incidence of thyroid papillary carcinoma was compared among the different groups.Pathogenic factors for thyroid papillary carcinoma were analyzed.Results 55 patients (7.0％) were diagnosed as thyroid papillary carcinoma among 784 patients.Gender,age,iodine intake,smoking history and history of radiation therapy were the pathogenic factors for papillary thyroid carcinoma.Thyroid papillary carcinoma was common in older women,patients with high-iodine intake and patients with the history of radiation therapy.The incidence of thyroid papillary carcinoma was higher in patients with high iodine intake than with normal-iodine intake or low-iodine intake [22.8％ (31/136) vs.1.9％％ (10/517),10.7％ (14/131),x2 =75.07,P＜0.01].The incidence of thyroid papillary carcinoma was higher in female than in male elderly patients [8.0％ (49/612) vs.3.5％ (6/172),P＜0.05].The incidence of thyroid papillary carcinoma was higher in patients with the history of radiation therapy than without the history of radiation [11.6％ (14/121) vs.6.2％ (41/663),P＜0.05].Conclusions The main risk factors for thyroid papillary carcinoma are living environment,gender,age,diet,smoking history and history of radiation therapy,which are more influenced by external factors.