First-author Dr. Sina Jasim and collaborators, Drs. Thomas Baranski, Shalene Teefey, and William Dana Middleton had their study’s findings published online January 7 in Thyroid journal. The new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis was conducted to determine if the location of thyroid nodules can be used to predict the risk of thyroid cancer. A total of 3241 nodules were analyzed; 335 of which were malignant. Thyroid cancer odds were highest in the isthmus. The isthmus is the central small part of the thyroid gland that connects the right and left thyroid lobes. It is directly anterior to the trachea.
The authors stated in their conclusion, “Thyroid nodule location is an independent risk factor in predicting the risk of thyroid cancer. Isthmic nodules carry the highest risk of cancer diagnosis and lower lobe nodules carry the lowest risk.”
Investigating the effect of thyroid nodule location on the risk of thyroid cancer (PubMed)
Investigating the effect of thyroid nodule location on the risk of thyroid cancer (full article pdf)
Anterior thyroid image CFCF [Creative Commons BY-SA}
This project was supported by the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, which is, in part, supported by the NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), CTSA grant UL1TR002345. This is the Just in time (JIT) funding grant.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award No. R25 CA190190.