scholarly journals Guidelines for management of thyroid cancer in adults: implications for clinical biochemistry

Author(s):  
Graham H Beastall

The implementation of recently published guidelines for the management of thyroid cancer in adults should result in improved clinical outcomes for patients with this condition. A clinical biochemist should be part of the support team for the local multidisciplinary thyroid cancer management team. Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone assays should have a minimum detection limit of 0.10mU/L or lower and good baseline security. The measurement of both thyroglobulin and calcitonin is challenging and clinical biochemists should have detailed knowledge of the performance characteristics and limitations of the assays that they report, including those referred to a specialist centre, in order to facilitate clinically valid decisions on patient management.

Author(s):  
Luca Giovanella ◽  
Luca Ceriani ◽  
Antonella Ghelfo

AbstractCirculating thyroglobulin (Tg) measurement after thyrotropin stimulation is a pivotal tool in the management of patients affected by differentiated thyroid carcinoma. The Tg assay on Immulite platform has a declared functional sensitivity of 0.9 ng/mL and it is widely used in clinical practice and research on thyroid carcinoma. Recently, thyroglobulin measured during thyroxine treatment was found to be adequate for thyroid carcinoma follow-up if functional sensitivity at 0.2–0.3 ng/mL was reached by assay methods. Thus, the present study was then undertaken to evaluate the imprecision of Immulite Tg assay at very low concentrations. The detection limit was calculated on zero calibrator and Tg-free pooled sera replicates and was 0.14 and 0.16 ng/mL, respectively. Different serum pools with Tg concentrations ranging from 0.16 to 2.50 ng/mL were assayed according to the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry guidelines to estimate functional sensitivity. By interpolating the imprecision profile with a coefficient of variation of 20%, the functional sensitivity was 0.36 ng/mL. The Immulite-Tg assay was directly compared with a high-sensitive immunoradiometric Tg assay in sera from 93 patients with thyroid carcinomas. No significant differences in sensitivity and specificity were observed by using the newly defined functional sensitivity. In conclusion, the Immulite Tg assay showed a lower functional sensitivity than expected and performed comparably to high-sensitive immunoradiometric assay in patients with thyroid carcinoma.Clin Chem Lab Med 2007;45:1523–4.


Author(s):  
Amaia Sandúa ◽  
Monica Macias ◽  
Carolina Perdomo ◽  
Juan Carlos Galofre ◽  
Roser Ferrer ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundThyroglobulin (Tg) is fundamental for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) monitoring. Tg detection can be enhanced using recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) (rhTSH). This study is aimed to evaluate the use of the rhTSH stimulation test when using a high-sensitivity Tg assay.MethodsWe retrospectively studied 181 rhTSH tests from 114 patients with DTC and negative for antithyroglobulin antibodies (anti-TgAb). Image studies were performed in all cases. Serum Tg and anti-TgAb were measured using specific immunoassays.ResultsrhTSH stimulation in patients with basal serum Tg (b-Tg) concentrations lower than 0.2 ng/mL always resulted in rhTSH-stimulated serum Tg (s-Tg) concentrations lower than 1.0 ng/mL and negative structural disease. In patients with b-Tg concentration between 0.2 and 1.0 ng/mL, s-Tg detected one patient (1/30) who showed biochemical incomplete response. Patients with negative images had lower s-Tg than those with nonspecific or abnormal findings (p<0.05). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of the s-Tg to detect altered images showed an area under the curve of 0.763 (p<0.05). With an s-Tg cutoff of 0.85 ng/mL, the sensitivity was 100%, decreasing to 96.15% with an s-Tg cutoff of 2 ng/mL.ConclusionsPatients with DTC with b-Tg concentrations equal or higher than 0.2 ng/mL can benefit from the rhTSH stimulation test.


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