Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2015) 37 EP887 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.37.EP887

ECE2015 Eposter Presentations Thyroid cancer (90 abstracts)

Value of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in predicting malignancy in thyroid nodules diagnosed as follicular neoplasm on cytology

Neslihan Soysal-Atile 1 , Nuray Can 2 , Sibel Güldiken 3 , Hüseyin Çelik 3 , Atakan Sezer 4 , Dogan Albayrak 4 & Armagan Tugrul 3


1Endocrinology Department, Tekirdag State Hospital, Tekirdag, Turkey; 2Pathology Department, Trakya University Faculty of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey; 3Endocrinology Department, Trakya University Faculty of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey; 4General Surgery Department, Trakya University Faculty of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey.


Aim: It is well known that there is a strong relationship between chronic inflammation and tumorigenic process. The cytological diagnosis of follicular neoplasm (FN) carries a 20–30% risk of malignancy for thyroid nodules. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether preoperative neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a predictive factor for malignancy in thyroid nodules diagnosed as FN on cytology.

Materials and methods: A total of 139 patients with FN who were treated by surgery were enrolled. Preoperative demographic and laboratory findings, USG characteristics and final pathological results were assessed retrospectively.

Results: 86.3% of the patients are females (n=120) and 13.7% are males (n=19). The overall malignancy rate of FN cytology was 44.5% (n=62). There was no significant difference in NLR between the benign and malign groups (NLR=2.12±1.05 and 1.98±0.92, respectively, P=0.496). When USG features were evaluated, hypoechogenicity and irregular margins was found associated with malignancy risk (P=0.006).

Conclusion: Our study showed no association between NLR and malignancy risk in thyroid nodules diagnosed as FN on cytology. The NLR is used as a readily available and inexpensive biomarker of inflammation. Many studies emphasised the increased NLR is associated with poor prognosis and adverse survival in various solid tumors including differentiated thyroid tumors. But we concluded NLR is not useful in predicting malignancy risk of thyroid nodules diagnosed as FN on cytology.

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