Mikael Eriksson1, Linda Kaerlev2, Preben Johansen3, Noemia Afonso4, Wolfgang Ahrens5, Altamiro Costa-Pereira6, Pascal Guénel7, Karl-Heinz Jöckel8, Agustin Llopis Gonzalez9, Franco Merletti10, Maria Morales Suárez-Varela9, Brigitte Trétarre11, Gun Wingren12, Lorenzo Richiardi13, Svend Sabroe14. 1. Department of Oncology, Lund University, and Skane University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: mikael.eriksson@med.lu.se. 2. Research Unit of Clinical Epidemiology, Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; Center for Clinical Epidemiology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark. 3. Institute of Pathology, Aalborg Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark. 4. Medical Oncology Department, Instituto Português de Oncologia (IPO-Porto), Porto, Portugal. 5. Department of Epidemiological Methods and Etiologic Research, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology-BIPS, Bremen, Germany. 6. Department of Health Information and Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. 7. Centre de recherche en Épidémiologie et Santé des Populations (CESP), Inserm U1018, France; Cancer and Environment Team, Université Paris-Sud, Villejuif, France. 8. Institute for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, University Clinic Essen, Germany. 9. Unit of Public Health and Environmental Care, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain. 10. Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, Centre for Oncologic Prevention, University of Turin, Italy. 11. Registre des Tumeurs de l´Hérault, Montpellier, France. 12. Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Sweden. 13. Department of Oncology, University of Padua, Italy. 14. Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Hardly anything is known about the aetiology of thymoma. This paper presents data regarding tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption in relation to thymoma from the first case-control study performed on this rare tumour. METHODS: A European multi-centre case-control study including incident cases aged 35-69 years with thymoma between 1995 and 1997, was conducted in seven countries. A set of controls, used in seven parallel case-control studies by the same research group was used, including population-based controls from five countries and hospital controls with colon cancer from two countries. Altogether 103 cases, accepted by a reference pathologist, 712 colon cancer controls, and 2071 population controls were interviewed. RESULTS: Tobacco smoking was moderately related with thymoma (OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.9-2.2), and a tendency to dose-response was shown (p = 0.04), with an increased risk for heavy smokers defined as ≥41 pack-years (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-3.9). A high consumption of spirits defined as ≥25 g of alcohol per day was associated with an increased risk of thymoma (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.1-5.4), whereas no association was found with beer or wine. CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco smoking and a high intake of spirits were indicated as risk factors for thymoma.
PURPOSE: Hardly anything is known about the aetiology of thymoma. This paper presents data regarding tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption in relation to thymoma from the first case-control study performed on this rare tumour. METHODS: A European multi-centre case-control study including incident cases aged 35-69 years with thymoma between 1995 and 1997, was conducted in seven countries. A set of controls, used in seven parallel case-control studies by the same research group was used, including population-based controls from five countries and hospital controls with colon cancer from two countries. Altogether 103 cases, accepted by a reference pathologist, 712 colon cancer controls, and 2071 population controls were interviewed. RESULTS:Tobacco smoking was moderately related with thymoma (OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.9-2.2), and a tendency to dose-response was shown (p = 0.04), with an increased risk for heavy smokers defined as ≥41 pack-years (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-3.9). A high consumption of spirits defined as ≥25 g of alcohol per day was associated with an increased risk of thymoma (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.1-5.4), whereas no association was found with beer or wine. CONCLUSIONS:Tobacco smoking and a high intake of spirits were indicated as risk factors for thymoma.
Authors: Jin-Won Noh; Kyoung-Beom Kim; Jooyoung Cheon; Yejin Lee; Ki-Bong Yoo Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2019-09-20 Impact factor: 3.390