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BACKGROUND: Population studies suggest cancer morbidity may be different in Turner syndrome (TS) compared to the background female population. However, significant variability is observed in cancer associations likely due to heterogeneity in patient cohorts. We explored the prevalence and patterns of cancer amongst a cohort of women with TS attending a dedicated TS clinic. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the patient database was performed to identify TS women who developed cancer. Population data (available before 2015) from the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service database were used for comparison. RESULTS: Out of 156 TS women, median age of 32 (range 18-73) years, 9 (5.8%) had a recorded cancer diagnosis. Types of cancers were, bilateral gonadoblastoma, type 1 gastric neuroendocrine tumour (NET), appendiceal-NET, gastrointestinal stromal tumour, plasma cell dyscrasia, synovial sarcoma, cervical cancer, medulloblastoma and aplastic anaemia. Median age at cancer diagnosis was 35 (range 7-58) years and two were detected incidentally. Five women had 45,X karyotype, three received growth hormone treatment and all except one received oestrogen replacement therapy. The cancer prevalence of the background age-matched female population was 4.4%. CONCLUSIONS: We confirm the previous observations that women with TS do not appear to be at overall increased risk of common malignancies. Our small cohort showed a spectrum of rare malignancies that are not typically associated with TS, except for a single patient with a gonadoblastoma. The slightly higher prevalence of cancer in our cohort might simply represent increased cancer prevalence in the background population, or might be related to small sample size and regular monitoring of these women due to TS per se.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/cen.14910

Type

Journal article

Journal

Clin Endocrinol (Oxf)

Publication Date

07/2023

Volume

99

Pages

64 - 72

Keywords

cancer, sIngle-centre study, tumour, turner syndrome, Humans, Male, Female, Adolescent, Young Adult, Adult, Middle Aged, Aged, Ovarian Neoplasms, Turner Syndrome, Retrospective Studies