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Benefit of measuring basal serum calcitonin to detect medullary thyroid carcinoma in a Danish population with a high prevalence of thyroid nodules
Author(s) -
Hasselgren Martin,
Hegedüs Laszlo,
Godballe Christian,
Bonnema Steen Joop
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.21228
Subject(s) - calcitonin , medicine , thyroid carcinoma , thyroid , medullary thyroid cancer , thyroid nodules , thyroidectomy , goiter , thyroid cancer , predictive value , medullary cavity , context (archaeology) , gastroenterology , endocrinology , paleontology , biology
Background Routine measurement of serum calcitonin to detect medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) continues to be fiercely debated, although less attention has been paid to the positive predictive value (PPV) of this method. Methods We collected data from 959 patients with nontoxic nodular goiter; thyroidectomy was performed in 307 of these patients. Results Thirty‐nine patients had elevated serum calcitonin; 6 of these patients had MTC detected by the initial diagnostic setup. No additional patient in the cohort was registered in the Danish Thyroid Cancer Database, reflecting that all patients with MTC were classified correctly initially. The sensitivity of serum calcitonin for detection of MTC was 100%, the specificity was 95.3%, the positive predictive value was 15.4%, and the negative predictive value was 100%. Conclusion Serum calcitonin has high sensitivity and specificity for detection of MTC. The low PPV might lead to unnecessary thyroid surgery. Thus, the result of serum calcitonin measurement should always be interpreted in the context of other clinical variables. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2010