[Specifics of thyroid status and their clinical significance in primary and recurrent thyroid cancer]

The results of an evaluation of thyroid homeostasis in 54 patients with thyroid cancer (TC), 12-thyroid adenoma (TA), 10-non-toxic nodular goiter (NTG) and 39 healthy controls are discussed. It was demonstrated that assays of blood serum levels of thyrotropic hormone (TTH), thyroxin (T4), triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroglobulin (TG) are useless in diagnosing TC. However, it was confirmed that routine assays of blood serum-TTH, T4 and T3 levels are needed to evaluate the effect of post-operative substitution hormone therapy. Furthermore, the presence of recurrence or metastasis was indicated by an elevated concentration of blood-TG post-operatively if it was high pre-operatively. Post-operatively, TTH levels soared up in thyroid cancer and adenoma patients, reached their peak one month after surgery and then came back to normal while blood-TG concentration dropped to normal within 6-12 months. Unlike TA patients, blood-TG showed a continuous rise in those with TC. Ten years after surgery, blood-TTH levels in TC patients, who had received substitution hormone therapy, were much lower than in those without it. Similarly, the recipients of hormone therapy showed relatively lower T3 (6 months after operation) and TG (5 years after surgery) levels. Blood-TTH in overweight (Broca index > 20%) patients with TC was much higher than in those overweight less than 20%, 2 years after surgery. Elevated concentrations of blood-TTH and T3 were recorded in radically-treated patients with TC recurrences and metastases.