Impact of thyroid hormone replacement on the risk of second cancer after thyroidectomy: a Korean National Cohort Study

We aimed to investigate the effect of thyroid hormone administration on the risk of second primary cancer in patients who underwent thyroidectomy for differentiated thyroid cancer. Data were extracted from the medical billing data of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in South Korea. Patients between 19 and 80 years old who underwent thyroid surgery at least once between January 2009 and June 2020 were included. Data of patients with second primary cancer and control patients with matched age, sex, operation date, and follow-up duration were extracted at a ratio of 1:4. A nested case–control analysis was performed to exclude length bias to confirm the correlation between the duration of thyroid hormone administration, dose, and incidence of second primary cancer. Of the 261,598 patients who underwent surgery for thyroid cancer included in the study, 11,790 with second primary cancer and 47,160 without second primary cancer were matched. The average dose of thyroid hormone increased the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for both low (≤ 50 μg, OR 1.29, confidence interval (CI) 1.12–1.48) and high (< 100 μg, OR 1.24, CI 1.12–1.37) doses. Analyzing over time, the adjusted OR of second primary cancer increased, especially in short (≤ 1 year) (OR 1.19; CI 1.06–1.34) and long (> 5 years) duration (OR 1.25; CI 1.10–1.41). In conclusion, insufficient and excessive thyroid hormone replacement might be linked to increased second primary cancer in patients who underwent thyroidectomy for differentiated thyroid cancer.