Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Apr 6;18(4):775.
doi: 10.3390/ijms18040775.

Molecular Signature of Indeterminate Thyroid Lesions: Current Methods to Improve Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) Diagnosis

Silvia Cantara  1 , Carlotta Marzocchi  2 , Tania Pilli  3 , Sandro Cardinale  4 , Raffaella Forleo  5 , Maria Grazia Castagna  6 , Furio Pacini  7
Affiliations
Review

Molecular Signature of Indeterminate Thyroid Lesions: Current Methods to Improve Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) Diagnosis

Silvia Cantara et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) represents the gold standard for determining the nature of thyroid nodules. It is a reliable method with good sensitivity and specificity. However, indeterminate lesions remain a diagnostic challenge and researchers have contributed molecular markers to search for in cytological material to refine FNAC diagnosis and avoid unnecessary surgeries. Nowadays, several "home-made" methods as well as commercial tests are available to investigate the molecular signature of an aspirate. Moreover, other markers (i.e., microRNA, and circulating tumor cells) have been proposed to discriminate benign from malignant thyroid lesions. Here, we review the literature and provide data from our laboratory on mutational analysis of FNAC material and circulating microRNA expression obtained in the last 6 years.

Keywords: fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC); gene expression classifier; indeterminate lesions; microRNAs (miRNAs); next generation sequencing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Aschebrook-Kilfoy B., Ward M.H., Sabra M.M., Devesa S.S. Thyroid cancer incidence patterns in the United States by histologic type, 1992–2006. Thyroid. 2011;21:125–134. doi: 10.1089/thy.2010.0021. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Belfiore A., La Rosa G.L., La Porta G.A., Giuffrida D., Milazzo G., Lupo L., Regalbuto C., Vigneri R. Cancer risk in patients with cold thyroid nodules: Relevance of iodine intake, sex, age, and multinodularity. Am. J. Med. 1992;93:363–369. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(92)90164-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gharib H., Goellner J.R., Johnson D.A. Fine needle aspiration of the thyroid. A 12 year experience with 11,000 biopsies. Clin. Lab. Med. 1993;13:699–709. - PubMed
    1. Bongiovanni M., Spitale A., Faquin W.C., Mazzucchelli L., Baloch Z.W. The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology: A meta-analysis. Acta Cytol. 2012;56:333–339. doi: 10.1159/000339959. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hamming J.F., Goslings B.M., Van Steenis G.J., van Ravenswaay Claasen H., Hermans J., van de Velde C.J.H. The value of one-needle aspiration biopsy in patients with nodular thyroid disease divided into groups of suspicion of malignant neoplasms on clinical grounds. Arch. Intern. Med. 1990;150:113–116. doi: 10.1001/archinte.1990.00390130107016. - DOI - PubMed