Hyperprolactinemia and cancer risk: a swedish population-based cohort study

Christos Himonakos; Louise Emilsson; Sophie Bensing; Katarina Berinder

doi:10.1530/endoabs.110.EP570

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Endocrine Abstracts (2025) 110 EP570 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.110.EP570

ECEESPE2025 ePoster Presentations Endocrine Related Cancer (100 abstracts)

Hyperprolactinemia and cancer risk: a swedish population-based cohort study

Christos Himonakos ^1,2 , Louise Emilsson ^3,4,5 , Sophie Bensing ^1,6 & Katarina Berinder ^1,6

Author affiliations

¹Karolinska Institutet, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Stockholm, Sweden; ²Karlstad Central Hospital, Department of Internal Medicin, Center for Endocrinology and Diabetes, Karlstad, Sweden; ³Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Stockholm, Sweden; ⁴Nysäter Health Care Center & Centre for Clinical Research, County Council of Värmland, Sweden; ⁵Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Department of General Practice & General Practice Research Unit (AFE), Oslo, Norway; ⁶Karolinska University Hospital, Department of Endocrinology, Stockholm, Sweden

JOINT526

Background: Concerns about the potential link between hyperprolactinemia (HPL) and cancer primarily arise from prolactin’s (PRL) role in promoting cell proliferation and the increased expression of PRL receptors in various cancer types. However, only a few studies have examined cancer risk in patients with HPL.

Purpose: To investigate cancer risk in a nation-wide cohort of patients with a diagnosis of HPL, with special emphasis on breast cancer.

Methods: In a Swedish population-based cohort study, we used nationwide registries to identify 3837 patients with HPL treated with dopamine agonists (DA) diagnosed between 2006 and 2019, along with 38370 controls matched by age, sex and county of residence. Cancer outcomes (overall and specific types) as registered in the Swedish Cancer Registry, were analyzed using Cox regression, internally stratified by the matching variables and additionally adjusted for diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking, alcohol overconsumption, hormone replacement therapy and educational level to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs).

Results: During a median follow-up time of 6.1 years (interquartile range [IQR] 3.4-9.6), 168 (4.6%) new cases of cancer were identified in patients with HPL and 1608 (4.4%) in the control group (aHR 1.05 [95% CI: 0.89-1.23]). Twenty-eight (0.7%) patients (all women) in the HPL group and 267 (0.7%) in the control group developed breast cancer, (aHR 1.02 [95% CI: 0.68-1.51]). Similarly, there was no increased risk of any other site-specific cancer.

Conclusions: In this nation-wide cohort study of patients with DA-treated HPL, no increased risk of overall cancer, breast cancer or other site-specific malignancies was observed.