Date of Award

January 2015

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

School of Public Health

First Advisor

Yawei Zhang

Abstract

Abstract

Objective: Thyroid cancer incidence has increased substantially in the United States. Previous studies of the relationship between cigarette smoking and thyroid cancer have yielded conflicting results.

Methods: In order further clarify the association between cigarette smoking and risk of thyroid cancer, we analyzed data from a population-based case-control study in Connecticut in 2010-2011 including 462 histologically confirmed incident thyroid cancer cases and 498 population-based controls. Multivariate unconditional logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations between cigarette smoking and risk of thyroid cancer adjusting for potential confounders.

Results: Our data showed a decreased risk of well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma among microcarcinomas (tumor size less than or equal to 1cm) by current smoker (OR=0.30, 95%CI 0.13, 0.70), lowest intensity category (OR=0.33, 95%CI 0.15- 0.74) as well as longest duration category (OR=0.18, 95%CI 0.07-0.47). No significant associations were found between these smoking predictors and macrocarcinomas (tumor size larger than 1cm).

Conclusions: Our study findings are consistent with a number of several previous epidemiologic studies indicating that cigarette smoking is associated with a decreased risk of thyroid cancer. The research highlights the significance of distinguishing between microcarcinomas and macrocarcinomas in future research on etiology of thyroid cancer.

Comments

This is an Open Access Thesis.

Open Access

This Article is Open Access

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