Fine-needle aspiration cytology for medullary thyroid carcinoma: a single institutional experience in Japan.

Fine-needle aspiration cytology for medullary thyroid carcinoma: a single institutional experience in Japan. Endocr J. 2017 Sep 05;: Authors: Suzuki A, Hirokawa M, Takada N, Higuchi M, Ito A, Yamao N, Hayashi T, Kuma S, Miyauchi A Abstract Many cytological studies on medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) have been reported; however, such studies in large series of patients with MTC have not been performed. We investigated MTC at a single institution in Japan using fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), and aimed to establish a preoperative diagnostic algorithm for MTC. FNAC was performed in 119 of 149 patients with nodules (79.9%) who ultimately underwent surgical resection. Moreover, hereditary MTC was diagnosed preoperatively in 22 nodules that did not undergo FNAC (39.3%) by their high serum calcitonin levels or increased response to calcium stimulation (11 cases each), as well as RET mutation analysis. On FNAC, 76.5% of cases were categorized as 'malignancy' or 'suspicious for malignancy'. The sensitivity and specificity of calcitonin measurement in aspiration needle wash-out fluid and in immunocytochemical staining for calcitonin were 96.3% and 92.3% respectively. We proposed an algorithm for preoperative diagnosis of MTC utilizing FNAC: When thyroid nodules are highly suspicious for MTC by their clinical and ultrasonographic features, serum calcitonin measurement with or without a calcium stimulation test is required. Furthermore,...
Source: Endocrine Journal - Category: Endocrinology Tags: Endocr J Source Type: research