Fast track — ArticlesCancer incidence in women with Turner syndrome in Great Britain: a national cohort study
Introduction
Turner (Ullrich-Turner) syndrome affects about 1 in 2000 live-born girls.1 The condition is characterised by complete or partial X-chromosome monosomy. Typical clinical features are short stature, ovarian dysgenesis with concomitant primary amenorrhoea, and lymphoedema. The phenotype is thought to be the result of haploinsufficiency of genes on the X chromosome that escape X-inactivation in early embryogenesis.2 Women with Turner syndrome have increased gonadotropin concentrations from infancy and low concentrations of oestrogens. Growth-hormone treatment is often given during adolescence to increase attained height and oestrogen-replacement treatment is given to initiate and sustain sexual maturation.
The risk of cancer in women with Turner syndrome has been little studied, but is important because the hormonal abnormalities and treatments associated with this syndrome might affect the risk of hormone-related cancers, and the chromosomal abnormality itself might affect cancer risk. Knowledge of this risk is also important in terms of counselling parents and probands on the disease and its prognostic implications, and for clinical and screening practice during the follow-up of these patients. Case reports3 have suggested that women with a Turner syndrome karyotype that includes a Y chromosome, such as 45,X/46,XY mosaicism, are at high risk of gonadoblastoma, a rare neoplasm that occurs almost exclusively in dysgenetic gonadal tissue; although a recent population-based study suggested lower risks than previously estimated.4 Furthermore, an increased susceptibility to neuroblastoma and related neurogenic tumours in childhood and early adulthood has been reported in hospital case series and reviews of case reports.5, 6 Case reports have also shown that patients with Turner syndrome might be at increased risk of endometrial cancer, due to long-term oestrogen-replacement treatment, although endometrial cancer in untreated patients has also been described.7, 8 The possibility of increased risks of several other cancers has also been suggested, but publication bias can over-emphasise coincidental findings. Few prospective studies of cancer occurrence in women with Turner syndrome have been reported. Mortality, including that from cancer, has been investigated in 156 patients with Turner syndrome in Scotland,9 and mortality and cancer incidence in an extended cohort of 285 patients in Scotland and England has also been studied.10 In Denmark, cancer incidence was investigated in a cohort of 597 women with Turner syndrome,11, 12 and cancer mortality in 781 women;1 a seven-times increased incidence of colon cancer was reported,11 but no significant associations with other cancers were noted. However, these studies were too small to investigate cancer risk in detail, and, therefore, leave many uncertainties on this topic.
We collected data from 25 cytogenetic centres in Great Britain over a period of 43 years to investigate the incidence of cancer in women with Turner syndrome, with the aim of including a much larger number of patients than previously studied.
Section snippets
Patients
Information on women who were diagnosed with Turner syndrome by postnatal cytogenetic tests was collected from all 27 regional cytogenetics centres in Britain, with the exception of two small centres who did not participate. Turner syndrome was defined as a karyotype with a 45,X cell line, or a structurally abnormal or absent short arm of the X chromosome. Records were collected for as far back in time as records had been maintained. Patients from three centres ascertained over a shorter time
Results
A total of 4909 women cytogenetically diagnosed with Turner syndrome between 1959 and 2002 were identified. Of these, 1287 could not be flagged on the NHSCR because insufficient identifying information was available, especially date of birth (n=712) or full name (n=223), or because the full name and date of birth was insufficiently specific to find a match on the NHSCR (n=352). A further 127 women were excluded from the study because of unknown year of cytogenetic testing, and 61 were excluded
Discussion
In our cohort of women with Turner syndrome, the overall risk of cancer was similar to that expected in the general population. Site-specific risks were, however, significantly increased for meningeal tumours, childhood brain tumours, bladder and urethra cancer, and ocular cancer, and significantly decreased for breast cancer. A significantly increased risk of cancer of the vagina and vulva was also noted, but this risk was not significant after excluding from the analyses the first 12 months
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