Patologie tiroidee istologicamente verificate in donne operate per cancro della mammella: una revisione della letteratura

The possible relationships between breast and thyroid diseases have been reported in the literature.

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the occurrence of histologically verified thyroid pathologies in women who were diagnosed with breast cancer and, after mastectomy/quadrantectomy complemented by oncological treatment, were thyroidectomised based on their periodic thyroid evaluation.

Our series consisted of 31 women with a mean age of 62.9 ± 10.9 years (range, 45–81) treated for breast cancer (18 right-sided, 11 left-sided, and 2 bilateral), of whom 29 were thyroidectomised, since two women who developed Graves’ disease refused thyroidectomy.

These 31 women belong to a cohort of 889 women who referred to the Breast Surgery Unit of our university hospital during the period January 2010 through December 2020.

The mean time interval between breast cancer and thyroid pathologies was 48.1 ± 23.4 months (range, 12–95).

The final diagnosis at histopathology was infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma in 26 women (with 2/26 patients having bilateral carcinoma) and infiltrating lobular breast carcinoma in the other 5 women.

Ten of the twenty-nine thyroidectomised women (34.5%) had a thyroid malignancy on histology: five papillary carcinomas, three papillary micro-carcinomas and two follicular carcinomas.

Two of the five women with papillary carcinoma also had histological evidence of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis/Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which was also detected in another five women with benign thyroid diseases.

We suggest that breast cancer survivors should be made aware of the possible increased risk of thyroid pathologies (including thyroid malignancy) so that they can undergo screening and follow-up.

Il cancro alla mammella e quello alla tiroide sono di comune diagnosi nelle donne.

Il fenomeno dei due tumori che si verificano in modo sincrono o asincrono è ben noto e riconosciuto in letteratura.

Tale associazione non è sorprendente in quanto entrambe le malattie sono a predominanza femminile, con un picco di incidenza postmenopausale simile.

I potenziali meccanismi sono complessi e vari.

Ormoni, l’autoimmunità e la predisposizione genetica sono fattori significativi e condivisi che influenzano i due tumori.

Sono stati anche esaminati nella letteratura le terapie eseguite per il primo cancro e altri fattori legati alla vita.

Questa Rassegna mira a esporre la relazione tra cancro alla mammella e alla tiroide e suggerisce che i medici dovrebbero monitorare adeguatamente il secondo cancro ogni volta che si verifica il primo cancro.