Testosterone therapy and cancer risks among men in the seer-medicare linked database

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND We examined associations between two forms of testosterone therapy (TT) and risks of seven cancers among men. METHODS SEER-Medicare combines cancer registry data from the

Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results programme with Medicare claims. Our population-based case–control study included incident cancer cases diagnosed between 1992–2015: prostate (_n_

 = 130,713), lung (_n_ = 105,466), colorectal (_n_ = 56,433), bladder (_n_ = 38,873), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (_n_ = 17,854), melanoma (_n_ = 14,241), and oesophageal (_n_ = 9116). We selected

100,000 controls from a 5% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries and used logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS TT was associated with

lower risk of distant-stage prostate cancer (injection/implantation OR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.60–0.86; topical OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.24–1.03). We also observed inverse associations for

distant-stage colorectal cancer (injection/implantation OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.62–0.90; topical OR = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.05–0.24). Risks of distant-stage colorectal and prostate cancers decreased

with time after initiating TT by injection/implantation. By contrast, TT was positively associated with distant-stage melanoma (injection/implantation OR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.37–2.11). TT was

not associated with bladder cancer, oesophageal cancer, lung cancer or non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CONCLUSION TT was inversely associated with distant-stage prostate and colorectal cancers but was

positively associated with distant-stage melanoma. These observations may suggest an aetiologic role for TT or the presence of residual confounding. Access through your institution Buy or

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TESTOSTERONE THERAPY DOES NOT INCREASE THE RISKS OF PROSTATE CANCER RECURRENCE OR DEATH AFTER DEFINITIVE TREATMENT FOR LOCALIZED DISEASE Article 08 June 2020 RISK OF ESOPHAGEAL AND GASTRIC

ADENOCARCINOMA IN MEN RECEIVING ANDROGEN DEPRIVATION THERAPY FOR PROSTATE CANCER Article Open access 29 June 2021 CARDIOVASCULAR RISKS OF ANDROGEN RECEPTOR TARGETED AGENTS IN PROSTATE

CANCER: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS Article 24 January 2024 DATA AVAILABILITY SEER-Medicare data are not publicly available. Data requests are managed and approved by Information

Management Services, Inc. CODE AVAILABILITY The SEER-Medicare data and statistical code used to generate the results herein are not publicly available. Request for data and statistical code

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studies of drug-cancer associations. Basic Clin Pharm Toxicol. 2018;122:451–9. Article  CAS  Google Scholar  Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors acknowledge and thank the

National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. We also acknowledge and thank the programming team from

Information Management Services (IMS). This work was supported by National Cancer Institute’s Intramural Research Program. FUNDING This work was supported by Intramural Research Funds of the

Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) of the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, USA. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Integrative

Tumor Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA Eboneé N. Butler & Marie C. Bradley * University of North Carolina

at Chapel Hill, Department of Epidemiology, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Eboneé N. Butler * Metabolic Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute,

Bethesda, MD, USA Cindy Ke Zhou & Michael B. Cook * Information Management Services, Inc, Calverton, MD, USA Michael Curry * Cancer Epidemiology Research Group, Centre for Public Health,

Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK Úna McMenamin & Christopher Cardwell * Biostatistics Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer

Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA Barry I. Graubard Authors * Eboneé N. Butler View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Cindy Ke Zhou View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Michael Curry View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Úna McMenamin

View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Christopher Cardwell View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * Marie C. Bradley View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Barry I. Graubard View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Michael B. Cook View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS Conception and design: ENB, CKZ and MBC.

Data analysis and interpretation: all authors. Manuscript writing: all authors. Final approval of manuscript: all authors. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Eboneé N. Butler. ETHICS

DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ETHICS APPROVAL AND CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE NIH OHSRP determined that this research activity was exempt from IRB

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Testosterone therapy and cancer risks among men in the SEER-Medicare linked database. _Br J Cancer_ 128, 48–56 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-022-02019-7 Download citation *

Received: 04 February 2022 * Revised: 05 October 2022 * Accepted: 07 October 2022 * Published: 28 October 2022 * Issue Date: 26 January 2023 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-022-02019-7

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