Endocrine Abstracts

Aims: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare endocrine cancer that accounts for approximately 5% of all thyroid cancers. Both the diagnosis and management of MTC could be difficult. Surgery is a main therapy in MTC, chemotherapy and external radiotherapy have limited efficacy. Recently, the relationship between some of the hemocytometer parameters and cancer has been investigated. In this study we aimed to determine the relationship between MTC and hemocytometer parameters and also evaluate whether they would be useful parameters for MTC prognosis.

Methods: Thirty six MTC who underwent total thyroidectomy in our center between 2000–2017 were included to the study. Patients’ data such as neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), platelet distribution width (PDW) collected from their electronic files. Also, recurrence and metastasis ratio of MCT were evaluated by using patients’ data.

Results: Twenty (55.5%) female and 16 (44.5%) male patients were included in the study. The mean age was 53.38±12.87 years. The mean follow-up period was 80.30±76.12 months. In the follow-up of the patients, 13 (36.1%) patients developed recurrence and/or metastasis. NLR, PLR, RDW and PDW were 3.34±3.57, 163.16±78.94, 15.88±2.12 and 15.38±7.05, respectively in patients with recurrent and / or metastasis. NLR, PLR, RDW and MPV levels were 4.51±5.66, 128.97±77.33, 15.23±1.59 and 16.76±2.36, respectively in patients without recurrence and/or metastasis. When recurrent and/or metastatic patients were compared with non-developed ones in terms of hemocytometer parameters, there was no statistically significant difference between NLR, PLR, RDW and PDW between recurrent and/or metastases positive patients and negative ones (P>0.05).

Conclusion: It is known that inflammation is critical for cancer development and prognosis. There are many reports in the literature that increased neutrophil and platelet levels, indicative of systemic inflammatory response, are associated with tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. Platelet increment has been shown to be associated with poor prognosis and poor survival in many types of cancer. As a result of our study, it was concluded that NLR, PLR, RDW and PDW levels of hemocytometer parameters do not have prognostic value in MTC.