Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and Objective: Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine tumor with a growing incidence worldwide. However, diagnostics using ultrasound research methods do not allow to unambiguously determine the type of thyroid lesion and make a precise diagnosis in early stages. The results of recent studies indicate the metabolic changes occurring in cancer cells. Various molecular biomarkers and indices (TYG, TYG-BMI) may indicate the onset of development and progression of thyroid cancer. The main aim of our study was to evaluate the role of metabolic markers and TyG, TyG-BMI indices as potential predictors of thyroid cancer.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted with the analysis of patient histories. Inclusion criteria were patients aged 18 to 85 years who were operated on for suspected thyroid cancer with a histologically verified diagnosis of thyroid cancer. Statistical analysis was carried out in the IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 program.

Results: Data was collected from 155 patients (22 men and 133 women) aged 18 to 85 years (Mo=56, Me=58) with a mean body mass index of 28,47 [24,91; 32,21]. According to the results of histological examination, patients were divided into a group with thyroid cancer (32 patients (20.5%)) and a group with benign thyroid lesions (123 patients, 79.5%). 75.9% (120 patients) were exposed to Bethesda 1-3 and 24.1% (35) to Bethesda 4-6. A comparative analysis of metabolic markers in the studied groups was carried out: the level of LDL was significantly higher in the group with thyroid cancer (median - 3.42 [2.53; 4.2]) than in the group without cancer (2.58 [1.9; 3,4]). The mean TSH level was higher in the group with thyroid cancer (1.92 [1.15; 2.51]) compared with the group of benign diseases (1.43 [0.7; 1.8]), and the groups also differed in age (TC - 51.5 [41; 58.3], benign lesions - 61 [51; 67]). No association with triglyceride levels, TyG and TyG-BMI was found (P = 0.738; 0.529; 0.519, respectively).

Conclusion: A higher risk of malignant thyroid cancer is associated with higher levels of TSH, LDL and younger age. Our study did not reveal any relationship between the TyG, TyG-BMI indices and the risk of thyroid cancer, which may be due to a small sample of patients.