Association of preoperative serum thyroid-stimulating hormone levels with thyroid cancer in patients with nodular thyroid disease

The aim of the current study was to determine the frequency of carcinoma thyroid among patients presenting with goiter and its association with preoperative serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. A total of 73 ( n = 73) adult patients of either gender with solitary solid cold nodule and multinodular goiter with predominant solid cold nodule were analyzed. All surgically resected samples were sent for histopathology. The frequency of thyroid cancer and its subtypes was noted and tested for association with preoperative serum TSH values. Thyroid cancer was diagnosed in 26% ( n = 19) of the patients. In patients with thyroid cancer ( n = 19), 73.7% ( n = 14) were diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer and 26.3% ( n = 5) were diagnosed with follicular thyroid cancer. Presence of thyroid cancer was found to be significantly associated with preoperative higher mean TSH values ( P < 0.05). Higher preoperative serum TSH levels may be useful in predicting thyroid cancer in nodular thyroid disease. Further studies are recommended with different cutoff values of serum TSH and its association with the development and progression of thyroid cancer.