Prognostic value of change in anti-thyroglobulin antibodies after thyroidectomy in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma

Abstract

Purpose

Anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) can be used as a surrogate tumor marker in the follow-up of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). We try to determine if the change in TgAb levels in the first post-operative year is a good predictor of persistence/recurrence risk in TgAb-positive PTC patients.

Methods/patients

105 patients with PTC who underwent thyroidectomy between 1988 and 2014 were enrolled. We calculated the percentage of change in TgAb levels with the first measurement at 1–2 months after surgery and the second one at 12–14 months.

Results

TgAb negativization was observed in 29 patients (27.6%), a decrease of more than 50% was observed in 57 patients (54.3%), less than 50% in 12 patients (11.4%) and in 7 patients (6.7%) the TgAb level had increased. The percentage of persistence/recurrence was 0, 8.8, 16.7 and 71.4% in each group, respectively (p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, only the percentage of change in TgAb showed a significant association with the risk of persistence/recurrence, regardless of other factors such as age, size and TNM stages.

Conclusions

Changes in TgAb levels in the first year after surgery can predict the risk of persistence/recurrence of TgAb-positive PTC patients. Patients who achieved negativization of TgAb presented an excellent prognosis.

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