Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Although the association between thyroid autoimmunity and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is supported by clinical studies, evidence to their pathophysiologic link and causal relationship is lacking. Moreover, there is a paucity of data regarding the association of thyroid autoimmunity with the less common types of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). The aim of the current paper was to investigate the association of autoimmunity and PTC vs follicular or medullary thyroid cancer.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, registry-based study in the Department of Endocrinology, Ippokratio General Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece. Patients with histologic evidence of DTC that were pre-operatively screened for thyroid autoimmunity during the last 5 years were included in the study. Patients with known cancer-related syndromes (patients with autoimmune polyglandular syndrome or multiple endocrine neoplasia) were excluded from the analysis. Thyroid autoimmunity was defined as presence of positive anti-TPO and/or anti-Tg antibodies. Statistical analysis was performed with the use of IBM SPSS 20.

Result: Sixty-five patients with thyroid cancer were assessed (12 men and 53 women). Their mean age was 51±2 years. Out of 65 patients, 54 patients had PTC, six had follicular cancer and five patients had medullary cancer. When patients with PTC were compared with patients with follicular or medullary cancer, the prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity was higher in patients with PTC in comparison with patients with other types of thyroid cancer (43% vs 9% respectively, P=0.035), independently of TSH concentrations.

Conclusion: This small retrospective study demonstrates that patients with PTC demonstrate significantly higher prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity, in comparison with other types of DTC. Further study into this differential association may provide insights for better prevention and management of PTC.