Serum Markers Measured in FNA Fluids of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Occurring as a Cyst

Some uncommon cystic lesions in the anterior head and neck region: Pitfalls to be avoided on cytology

Cystic lesions of the anterior head and neck region are a challenging and frequent finding on cytological smears. The scant amount of cellular material in cystic slides poses the greatest difficulty to interpretation, so that frequently they are diagnosed as inadequate or with minimal cellular component. Despite the majority of cystic lesions being benign, a minor portion consist of malignant cystic entities. In these latter cases, the evidence of very scant malignant cells can be misdiagnosed and/or underestimated, leading to a false negative diagnosis. Many papers have already described and detailed the range of possible benign and malignant cystic lesions in head and neck. In the current review we have focused on the less common entities that often lead to serious misinterpretation.

Procalcitonin as a postoperative marker in the follow-up of patients affected by medullary thyroid carcinoma

AIM

Due to the limits of calcitonin, other markers are warranted to better manage medullary thyroid carcinoma patients, and procalcitonin has been reported as promising. Here we aimed to evaluate procalcitonin as a marker of medullary thyroid carcinoma in the post-treatment follow-up.

METHODS

Medullary thyroid carcinoma patients previously treated by thyroidectomy were enrolled. After complete imaging work-up (i.e. ultrasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance and ¹⁸FDG-PET-CT) we identified patients with structural recurrent/persistent medullary thyroid carcinoma (active medullary thyroid carcinoma) and subjects with no evidence of disease. Then, both calcitonin and procalcitonin were measured and their performance analyzed.

RESULTS

The final series included 55 medullary thyroid carcinoma patients treated and followed-up for about five years. Of these, 43 were assessed as no evidence of disease, and 12 as active medullary thyroid carcinoma. The median value of procalcitonin was significantly higher ( P < 0.0001) in active medullary thyroid carcinoma patients (3.10 ng/mL) than in those with no evidence of disease (0.10 ng/mL). Also, calcitonin levels of active medullary thyroid carcinoma (96.7 pg/mL) were significantly ( P < 0.0001) higher than that of no evidence of disease (2.0 pg/mL). At the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the optimal cut-off of procalcitonin was ≥0.32 ng/mL with 92% sensitivity and 98% specificity, while the most accurate threshold of calcitonin was ≥12.0 pg/mL with 100% sensitivity and 91% specificity. There was no active medullary thyroid carcinoma with simultaneously negative results of procalcitonin and calcitonin.

CONCLUSIONS

Procalcitonin is reliable in discriminating medullary thyroid carcinoma patients with active disease from those with no evidence of disease. We suggest using procalcitonin as complementary to calcitonin to follow-up medullary thyroid carcinoma patients.

Measurement of thyroglobulin, calcitonin, and PTH in FNA washout fluids

Different imaging tools, circulating endocrine markers, and fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology are of great importance in the diagnosis and follow-up of different thyroid and parathyroid diseases. Sometimes, however, they are conflicting or inconclusive: interestingly, measuring endocrine markers (i.e. thyroglobulin, calcitonin, parathyroid hormone) in fluids from FNA proved to be a very useful complementary diagnostic tool in such cases. The determination of endocrine markers in fluids other than serum/plasma has been developed in the last years. Although studies have reported overall satisfactory results, a good standardization of procedures has not yet been reached, and further efforts should be made in order to better define pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical aspects. Here we reviewed critically the literature on the measurement of FNA endocrine markers, focusing on laboratory issues, such as preparation of the sample, choice of solution, and technical features of determination of these markers. Indeed, information for use of FNA-Tg, FNA-CT, and FNA-PTH in clinical practice was also provided.

Variables affecting evaluation and publication of oncology case reports: a systematic analysis

BACKGROUND

Studies on factors affecting editorial decisions of scientific journals are scarce. In this study, we focused on case reports submitted to oncology journals and analyzed whether their nature or other relevant variables affected the chances of their acceptance.

METHODS

We analyzed case reports submitted to 2 oncology journals: Tumori Journal and The International Journal of Biological Markers, and split them into 3 predefined groups: those (a) describing rare or unusual presentation of diseases, (b) describing the side effects of an intervention or (c) describing the success of a novel intervention. Publication status was retrospectively retrieved from the submission system, and acceptance rates were calculated taking into account other variables including geographic location of corresponding author.

RESULTS

A total of 326 case reports were suitable for analysis. The acceptance rate was 35.4% for group (a), 27.9% for group (b), 19.6% for group (c) (p = 0.01). After correcting for other variables, the odds ratio (OR) of being accepted for group (c) was 0.58 (95% CI, 0.33-1.00) compared with the other groups combined. There was a highly significant difference of acceptance rates between manuscripts with authors coming from developed vs. developing countries that remained significant (OR = 5.94; 95% CI, 3.05-10.09) after correcting for multiple variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The nature of a case report in oncology may affect acceptance rate, with case reports describing successful approaches or side effects of treatment being accepted with a higher frequency then case reports describing a rare clinical or diagnostic scenario. Also, works coming from developed countries are accepted significantly more frequently than case reports coming from developing countries.