Thyroid antibody status exerts insignificant effect on lymph node metastasis of thyroid cancer

To investigate whether high thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) and thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) levels are associated with increased risk of lymph node metastasis (LNM) of thyroid cancer.

Data of 2,352 patients who committed thyroidectomy from January 2018 to December 2018 at our institution were retrospectively reviewed. Of which, 806 patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer with available data of both TPOAb and TgAb were finally included, and were divided into four groups: (I) TPOAb-/TgAb- (control, n=493), (II) TPOAb+/TgAb- (n=96), (III) TPOAb-/TgAb+ (n=104), and (IV) TPOAb+/TgAb+ (n=113). The demographic and clinicopathological data were analyzed.

Compared to control, significantly less extrathyroidal invasions were identified in TPOAb+ and/or TgAb+ patients (P<0.05), while no significant differences for tumor size, multifocality, or central/lateral neck LNM rate were found for TPOAb+ and/or TgAb+ groups (all P>0.05). Compared to control, significantly more lymph nodes were removed during neck dissection (P<0.05), but there were no significant differences for the number or size of lymph nodes involved (all P>0.05) for TPOAb+ and/or TgAb+ patients. TPOAb+ and/or TgAb+ were not identified as risk factors or protect factors of LNM of thyroid cancer in Logistic regression analyses.

In the present study, we demonstrated that anti-thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin antibodies are not associated with increased risk of lymph node metastasis of thyroid cancer.