What is new on thyroid cancer biomarkers

Abstract

Thyroid cancer harbours in about 5% of thyroid nodules. The majority of them are well-differentiated cancers originating from the follicular epithelium, and are subdivided into papillary and follicular carcinomas. Undifferentiated carcinomas and medullary thyroid carcinomas arising from C cells are less common. Although most thyroid nodules are benign, distinguishing thyroid cancer from benign lesions is crucial for an appropriate treatment and follow-up. The fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) allows the diagnosis of nature of thyroid nodules in the majority of cases. However, FNAC has some limitations, particularly in the presence of follicular lesions which can appear dubious in rare instances even at histology. In an effort to improve diagnostic accuracy and offer new prognostic criteria, several immunohistochemical and molecular markers have been proposed. However, most of them have to be validated on large series before being used in routine practice.