ArticleBMC medicine2023
Cancer risk following surgical removal of tonsils and adenoids - a population-based, sibling-controlled cohort study in Sweden.
Article in BMC medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Postnatal determinants of testicular germ cell tumor by histological subtypes: The EPSAM1 and EPSAM2 studies.International journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Occupational, Lifestyle, and Medical Risk Factors for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Case-Control Study in Ethiopia.Cancers · 2025Article
- Mendelian randomization analysis reveals causal relationship between tonsillectomy and irritable bowel syndrome.Frontiers in surgery · 2025Article
- Stress-Related Disorders Among Young Individuals With Surgical Removal of Tonsils or Adenoids.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Surgical removal of tonsils and risk of COVID-19: a nested case-control study using data from UK Biobank and AMORIS Cohort.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- [Long-term effect observation after 10 years of tonsillotomy （Histological analysis of one case of secondary operation）].Lin chuang er bi yan hou tou jing wai ke za zhi = Journal of clinical otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery · 2024Article
- Novel Risk Factors for Uveal Melanoma in Adolescent and Young Adult Patients: A Comprehensive Case-Control Analysis.Ophthalmology scienceArticle
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRemoval of tonsils and adenoids is among the most common surgical procedures worldwide. Evidence of increased risk of cancer following such surgery is, however, inconclusive.
methodsWe conducted a population-based, sibling-controlled cohort study of 4,953,583 individuals in Sweden with a follow-up during 1980-2016. History of tonsillectomy, adenotonsillectomy, and adenoidectomy was identified from the Swedish Patient Register whereas incident cases of cancer during follow-up were identified from the Swedish Cancer Register. We used Cox models to calculate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of cancer in both a population and a sibling comparison. The sibling comparison was used to assess the potential impact of familial confounding, due to shared genetic or non-genetic factors within a family.
resultsWe found a modestly increased risk for any cancer following tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, or adenotonsillectomy in both the population (HR 1.10; 95%CI 1.07-1.12) and sibling (HR 1.15; 95%CI 1.10-1.20) comparisons. The association did not differ greatly by type of surgery, age at surgery, or potential indication for surgery, and persisted more than two decades after surgery. An excess risk was consistently observed for cancer of the breast, prostate, thyroid, and for lymphoma in both population and sibling comparisons. A positive association was observed for pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, and leukemia in the population comparison whereas a positive association was observed for esophageal cancer in the sibling comparison.
conclusionsSurgical removal of tonsils and adenoids is associated with a modestly increased risk of cancer during the decades following the surgery. The association is unlikely attributed to confounding due to shared genetic or non-genetic factors with a family.
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