Cancer Res Treat.  2017 Apr;49(2):534-547. 10.4143/crt.2016.161.

Alcohol Intake and Risk of Thyroid Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

• Hong SH
• Myung SK
• Kim HS
• The Korean Meta-Analysis (KORMA) Study Group

• KMID: 2378127
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4143/crt.2016.161

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to assess whether alcohol intake is associated with the risk of thyroid cancer by a meta-analysis of observational studies.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We searched PubMed and EMBASE in June of 2015 to locate eligible studies. We included observational studies such as cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, and cohort studies reporting odd ratios (ORs) or relative risk (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
RESULTS
We included 33 observational studies with two cross-sectional studies, 20 case-controls studies, and 11 cohort studies, which involved a total of 7,725 thyroid cancer patients and 3,113,679 participants without thyroid cancer in the final analysis. In the fixed-effect model meta-analysis of all 33 studies, we found that alcohol intake was consistently associated with a decreased risk of thyroid cancer (OR or RR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.83; I2=38.6%). In the subgroup meta-analysis by type of study, alcohol intake also decreased the risk of thyroid cancer in both case-control studies (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.92; I2=29.5%; n=20) and cohort studies (RR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.82; I2=0%; n=11). Moreover, subgroup meta-analyses by type of thyroid cancer, gender, amount of alcohol consumed, and methodological quality of study showed that alcohol intake was significantly associated with a decreased risk of thyroid cancer.
CONCLUSION
The current meta-analysis of observational studies found that, unlike most of other types of cancer, alcohol intake decreased the risk of thyroid cancer.

Keyword

Thyroid neoplasms; Alcohol drinking; Case-control studies; Cohort studies; Meta-analysis

MeSH Terms

Alcohol Drinking
Case-Control Studies
Cohort Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Thyroid Gland*
Thyroid Neoplasms*

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Flow diagram of identification of relevant studies.

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  Fig. 2. Association between alcohol intake and risk of thyroid cancer in a fixed-effect model meta-analysis of observational studies (n=33) [11,12,16-29]. OR, odds ratio; RR, relative risk; CI, confidence interval. a)Fixed-effect model.

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  Fig. 3. Association between alcohol intake and risk of thyroid cancer in a fixed-effect model meta-analysis by type of study [11,16-29]. OR, odds ratio; RR, relative risk; CI, confidence interval. a)Fixed-effect model.

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  Fig. 4. Begg’s funnel plots and Egger’s test for identifying publication bias in meta-analysis of trials. OR, odds ratio; RR, relative risk; SE, standard error.

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