The relationship between glucose metabolism disorders and malignant thyroid disease

Previous studies have shown a positive relationship between insulin resistance and several common adult cancers. The present retrospective study aimed to investigate the association between glucose metabolism disorders (GMDs) and the prevalence of thyroid cancer.

We investigated the data of 4272 patients who had undergone fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of thyroid nodules. The biopsy results were evaluated as diagnostic or non-diagnostic and the diagnostic results were classified as benign, malignant, and indeterminate. In this study, we included 2234 of the above patients who had undergone FNAB at our hospital and whose biopsy results were evaluated as diagnostic and were classified as either benign or malignant. We obtained the cytologic data and the glucose metabolism status of these patients retrospectively.

Of the 2234 patients, 629 (28.1 %) had GMD (impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance). Malignant cytology was determined in 106 (4.7 %) patients overall. Of the 629 patients with GMD, 582 (92.5 %) patients had benign cytology and 47 (7.5 %) patients had malignant cytology. Fifty-nine (3.7 %) of the 1605 normoglycemic patients had malignant cytology. Malignant cytology was determined more frequently ın the patients who had GMDs (p < 0.001).

The results demonstrated that thyroid cancer prevalence was higher in patients with GMD. According to our results, GMD should be considered as a risk factor for malignancy in the evaluation of thyroid nodules.