No link between breast cancer and meningioma: results from a large monoinstitutional retrospective analysis

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2014 Jan;23(1):215-7. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-13-1041. Epub 2013 Oct 28.

Abstract

Background: The etiology of meningioma is largely unknown, although breast cancer has been suggested to play a role.

Methods: A monoinstitutional, retrospective analysis was performed at European Institute of Oncology on 12,330 patients with breast cancer. The cumulative incidence of meningioma was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test was used to assess differences between groups.

Results: In total, 33 patients with meningioma were identified from a study population of 12,330, with a 10-year cumulative incidence of meningioma of 0.37%. We did not find a significantly increased risk of meningioma among patients with breast cancer or an association between the hormonal receptor status and the risk of meningioma (P = 0.65).

Conclusions: Our results do not support a role of breast cancer or endocrine treatments in meningioma development.

Impact: This analysis adds new information on a debated topic.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Breast Neoplasms / epidemiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Italy / epidemiology
  • Meningioma / epidemiology*
  • Middle Aged
  • Registries
  • Retrospective Studies