Association Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Papillary Thyroid Cancer: Tertiary Center Experience

Papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most common thyroid malignancy, with a higher incidence in women. Vitamin D deficiency has been proposed as a potential risk factor for various cancers, including thyroid cancer. This study investigates the association between vitamin D deficiency and papillary thyroid carcinoma. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 209 patients diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma from January 2016 to December 2020. Clinical data, including vitamin D levels, were collected and analyzed using SPSS software. ANOVA was employed to determine the significance of the relationship between vitamin D status, lymph node positivity, and thyroid nodule size. Vitamin D deficiency was prevalent in 58.4% of patients, with 25.4% being insufficient and 16.3% normal. No significant relationship was found between vitamin D levels and the number of positive lymph nodes (p = 0.457) or thyroid nodule size (p = 0.775). Vitamin D levels may not be a reliable prognostic indicator for papillary thyroid carcinoma. Further research with larger sample sizes is necessary to explore this association.