Cadmium as main endocrine disruptor in papillary thyroid carcinoma and the significance of Cd/Se ratio for thyroid tissue pathophysiology

The etiology of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is unknown and some literature data support the hypothesis that heavy metals, as endocrine disrupters, could play a major role in the pathogenesis of thyroid cancer. This study aimed to estimate the content of selected toxic and essential trace metals (Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Pb, Th, and U), as well as the selected ratio's (Cu/Zn and Cd/Se) in the malignant thyroid tissues according to sex, age, smoking habits, familial history of any thyroid disease, pathohistological (PH) types of PTC, tumor size, the existence of a thyroid capsular invasion, intrathyroid tumor dissemination, retrosternal thyroid growth, and TNM progress of PTC.

The study included 66 patients with PTC (women/men ratio = 46/20, mean age: 54 ± 14 years). A comparative analysis was made by collecting the healthy thyroid tissues (HTTs) of the same patients, making the total number of samples 132. All trace metals were quantified by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

Metals that significantly separated papillary thyroid tissues (PTTs) from the HTTs were Cd, U and Se (p < 0.05). The obtained negative correlation between Cd and Se in the PTTs could explain extrusion of essential Se caused by increased content of Cd. Only Cd had an influence on the retrosternal thyroid growth, while the essential metals (Mn, Co, and Zn) had an influence on thyroid capsular invasion.

It was found that Cd act as the main endocrine disrupter, which could highlight its role in the etiology of PTC. Considering that the Cd/Se ratio significantly separated two studied groups and had an influence on the retrosternal thyroid growth, its altered content could contribute to the better understanding of the molecular basis for pathophysiological changes in the PTC.