Association of thyroid disease with acute leukemia.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possible clinical association of autoimmune thyroid disease and acute leukemia. This study is a retrospective review of all adult patients with acute leukemia treated at our institutions from 1978-1989. Those with both leukemia and thyroid disease were evaluated and are presented. Twenty-seven of eight hundred seventy patients with acute leukemia had evidence of thyroid disease. This is a 3-fold increase in overall incidence. Twenty-one patients had acute myeloid leukemia, five had acute lymphoid leukemia, and one had accelerated chronic myeloid leukemia. Thyroid disease entities included toxic multinodular goiter (four patients), idiopathic hypothyroidism (eight patients), Graves' disease (eight patients), and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (seven patients). Whereas the association may have had a negative effect on elderly patients, those with Graves' disease and Hashimoto's disease appeared to have an improved outcome of the leukemia. There is an increased association of autoimmune thyroid disease and acute leukemia. Since thyroid hormones are important regulators of hematopoiesis and utilize receptors similar to those of differentiating factors such as retinoids, the association may be important for further study of mechanisms of growth regulations in leukemia.