Lack of Association between Serum Adiponectin/Leptin Levels and Medullary Thyroid Cancer

Adipokines are bioactive proteins that mediate metabolism, inflammation and angiogenesis. Changes in the secretion of key serum adipokines - adiponectin and letpin - may be associated with obesity, cancer and metabolic disorders. Thyroid cancer is one of the most important types of endocrine cancer. Therefore, investigating the association between serum levels of adiponectin and leptin and thyroid cancer might be important. The purpose of this study was to assess adiponectin and leptin levels in medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) cases in order to identify novel tumor markers.

This research was based on a case-control study, including 45 patients with medullary thyroid cancer (21 men and 24 women) and 45 healthy controls (24 males and 21 females). Adiponectin and leptin levels were measured by ELISA in both groups. Height and weight were measured and body mass index (kg/m2) was calculated.

Adiponectin and leptin levels were not significantly different between medullary thyroid carcinomas and the control group. Also, there was no correlation among age and body mass index and the disease.

These results suggest that changes in serum adiponectin and leptin levels do not play an important role in the diagnosis or could act as as biomarkers for medullary thyroid cancer.