ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgical Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Meningioma Management and Treatment: Novel Diagnostic Approaches and Emerging Therapeutic StrategiesView all articles
Association of Thyroid Disease and Intracranial Meningiomas: A Retrospective Analysis with External Validation
Provisionally accepted
Max Andy Saint-Germain1
Jonathan B Bell2Carlen A Yuen3
Andrew Wilmington4Laura Dresser5Matthew T Walker6
Christopher R Trevino6
Roberto Salvatori7Debraj Mukherjee7
David Olayinka Kamson7*
Ryan Merrell8- 1Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, United States
- 2University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, United States
- 3University of California Irvine, Irvine, United States
- 4Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, United States
- 5The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, United States
- 6Endeavor Health, Evanston, United States
- 7The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
- 8Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, United States
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Background: The scope of comorbid conditions with meningiomas is understudied. There is limited published evidence to date suggesting higher prevalence of thyroid diseases in patients with meningiomas. This retrospective study was designed to evaluate this association. Methods: The medical records from 584 patients with intracranial meningiomas were reviewed. The prevalence of thyroid disease was calculated as well as odds ratios to compare patient cohorts. Subsequently, the results were externally validated using SlicerDicer data from a second institution's electronic medical record. Results: Within the Endeavor Intracranial Meningioma cohort, thyroid disease was found in 196/584 (33.6%): hypothyroidism in 154/584 (26.4%), nodular disease in 34/584 (5.8%), thyroid cancer in 9/584 (1.5%), and hyperthyroidism in 8/584 (1.4%) patients. An additional 9/584 (1.5%) patients had a different thyroid disease or diagnosis. Our external validation with patients only from the second institution yielded significant association of meningioma with thyroid hormone medication use (OR=6.1), hypothyroidism (OR=7.5), thyroid cancer (OR=14.6), hyperthyroidism (OR=5.9), and thyroid nodules (OR=10.8). Comparing meningioma patients to patients with glioblastoma yielded a similar association between meningioma and general thyroid disorders (OR=2.1), thyroid hormone usage (OR=2.1), hypothyroidism (OR=1.7), thyroid cancer (OR=3.1), and thyroid nodules (OR=7.5). These observations were not confounded by female overrepresentation. Conclusions: This study confirms thyroid disease, particularly hypothyroidism, to be a common comorbid condition in patients with intracranial meningiomas in two independent datasets. Further research is needed to assess the role of thyroid disorders in the outcomes for patients with meningioma.
Keywords: Meningioma, thyroid disorders, Hypothyroidism, Thyroid hormone replacement, neuro-oncolgy, Thyroid nodular disease
Received: 26 May 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Saint-Germain, Bell, Yuen, Wilmington, Dresser, Walker, Trevino, Salvatori, Mukherjee, Kamson and Merrell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: David Olayinka Kamson
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