Higher risk of thyroid lumps leading to cancer
Published: 19 Jun 2017
A local NUH study discovered that thyroid nodules classified as “indeterminate” under international standard, which means that they cannot be classified as safe or cancerous, may have a higher cancer risk. They were initially thought to be malignant 5 per cent to 15 per cent of the time. Conducted between 2008 and 2014 with 309 NUH patients, this study showed that more than one in four patients are at risk with cancer, and doctors may advise patients to go for surgery instead of waiting for a biopsy in future.
Dr Ngiam Kee Yuan from NUS Medicine’s Department of Surgery, and one of the authors of the study, said that in light of the study’s findings, surgery to remove one side of the thyroid gland might sometimes be a better option.
The team also found that the risk of cancer differed for two types of thyroid nodules – those with nuclear atypia, where the cells have an abnormal nucleus, and architectural atypia, where the cell patterns are abnormal.
This suggests that patients who have thyroid nodules classified in category three but with nuclear atypia might benefit more from surgery, said Associate Professor Nga Min En from NUS Medicine’s Department of Pathology, who was also part of the team.
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