Circulating endogenous sex steroids and risk of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in men and women.

Thyroid cancer (TC) is substantially more common in women than in men, pointing to a possible role of sex steroid hormones. We investigated the association between circulating sex steroid hormones, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and the risk of differentiated TC in men and women within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC) cohort. During follow-up, we identified 333 first primary incident cases of differentiated TC (152 in pre/peri-menopausal women, 111 in post-menopausal women, and 70 in men) and 706 cancer-free controls. Women taking exogenous hormones at blood donation were excluded. Plasma concentrations of testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, estradiol, estrone and progesterone (in pre-menopausal women only) were performed using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry method. SHBG concentrations were measured by immunoassay. Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated using conditional logistic regression models adjusted for possible confounders. No significant associations were observed in men and postmenopausal women, while a borderline significant increase in differentiated TC risk was observed with increasing testosterone (adjusted OR T3 vs T1: 1.68, 95% CI: 0.96-2.92, ptrend = .06) and androstenedione concentrations in pre/perimenopausal women (adjusted OR T3 vs T1: 1.78, 95% CI: 0.96-3.30, ptrend = .06, respectively). A borderline decrease in risk was observed for the highest progesterone/estradiol ratio (adjusted OR T3 vs T1: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.28-1.05, ptrend = .07). Overall, our results do not support a major role of circulating sex steroids in the etiology of differentiated TC in post-menopausal women and men but may suggest an involvement of altered sex steroid production in pre-menopausal women.

Antidepressant drugs and risk of developing glioma: a national registry-based case control study and a meta-analysis.

The aim of the present study was to investigate if use of antidepressants is related to the risk of developing lower (WHO grade 2-3) and higher grade (WHO grade 4) glioma. A registry-based case-control study was performed using 1283 glioma cases and 6400 age-, sex- and geographically matched controls, diagnosed in Sweden 2009-2013. Conditional logistic regression was used to analyze whether Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) or non-SSRIs were associated with the risk of developing lower- or higher-grade glioma in the study population. Our results show that use of antidepressant medication was not associated with the risk of developing glioma. We also performed a meta-analysis in which the dataset from the present study was combined with results from two previous epidemiological studies to answer the same questions. The meta-analysis showed a modest risk reduction of developing glioma in relation to antidepressant treatment (OR 0.90 [95% CI 0.83-0.97]), when all glioma subgroups and all forms of antidepressant medications were combined. In conclusion, it remains possible that antidepressants may have common monoaminergic mechanism(s) that reduce the risk of developing glioma.

Antidepressants and survival in glioma-A registry-based retrospective cohort study.

Background: Depression and treatment with antidepressant medication is common in patients with malignant glioma. However, the extent to which antidepressants may affect the disease is not fully understood. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate possible associations between treatment with antidepressant medication and survival in glioma patients. Methods: We performed a registry-based cohort study including 1231 patients with malignant glioma (WHO grades 2, 3, and 4) having undergone surgery, and 6400 matched controls without glioma. All data were extracted from the RISK North database, which contains information from multiple national population-based registries in Sweden. Results: Treatment with antidepressants is more common in patients with malignant glioma (27%), compared to controls (16%), P < .001. Treatment with antidepressants after surgery for glioma was significantly associated with poorer survival. These effects were observed both for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and non-SSRIs. In grade 4 glioma, SSRI treatment was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 3.32 (95% CI 2.69-4.10, P < .001), and non-SSRI treatment a HR of 3.54 (95% CI 2.52-4.99, P < .001), compared to glioma patients without antidepressants. In grade 2-3 glioma, the HR for SSRI treatment was 3.26 (95% CI 2.19-4.85, P < .001), and for non-SSRI treatment was 7.71 (95% CI 4.22-14.12, P < .001). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate a negative association between antidepressant medication and survival in glioma. Further research will be needed to clarify causation.