study of thyroid hormones profile in breast cancer patients

ABSTRACT

Breast cancer is a hormone dependent neoplasm, estrogen involvement in breast cancer has been established, however the relationship between thyroid disorders and breast cancer is debated. The aim of this work is to study the changes of thyroid hormones profile in women with breast cancer and to find the relationship between thyroid hormones and E2 in the pathogenesis of breast cancer in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. The study was carried out on 60 subjects, 40 breast cancer patients with age range between 28 to 67 years and 20 healthy female subjects served as control with age range between 28 to 65 years. The studied subjects were subjected to full history taking, clinical and radiological examination, measurement of free triiodothyronine [FT3], free thyroxin [FT4], thyroid stimulating hormone [TSH], anti thyroid peroxidase antibodies [anti Tpo] and estradiol [E2]. The results of this study showed a significant decrease as regarding TSH level [p<0.05] and a high significant increase as regarding anti Tpo level [p<0.001] in patient group when compared to control group. Whereas there is no significant differences as regarding FT3, FT4, E2 and FT3/E2 index. High positive prevalence rate of sub-clinical hyperthyroidism and autoimmune thyroid diseases [p<0.01] in breast cancer patients when compared to controls. It could be concluded that there is a high prevalence of subclinical hyperthyroidism in postmenopausal breast cancer patients, while autoimmune thyroid disorders are more in premenopausal breast cancer patients suggesting the relationship between breast cancer and thyroid disorders