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

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.