Study of serum Micro-RNA 221 Expression in Patients with Thyroid Nodules and Its Relation to Outcome

Abstract

A major dilemma in the diagnostic management of thyroid nodules is to determine whether it is a benign or malignant lesion and hence to determine decision for surgery. The majority of individuals with thyroid nodules are asymptomatic. The current first line of evaluation of thyroid nodules encompasses thyroid hormone laboratory tests, and ultrasonography of the thyroid gland , fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy is often used to rule out cancer in thyroid nodules ,in 20–30 % of cases, however, FNAB yields indeterminate cytological results and suspicious for malignancy. Surgery was classically recommended for such indeterminate nodules for their risk of malignancy, which, overall, is about 25 % when confirmed histopathologically upon thyroidectomy. As a result, about 75 % of patients with cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules would undergo unnecessary thyroid surgeries for nodules that prove to be benign only after surgery. Recent advances in research on thyroid carcinogenesis have yielded applications of diagnostic molecular biomarkers and profiling panels in the management of thyroid nodules. Among these markers are MicroRNAs (miRs) are small RNA sequences (19–25 nucleotides) that function to regulate the expression of genes.In this paper we aim to detect a possible of Micro-RNA 221 expression in sera of Patients With thyroid nodules and its relation to outcome after surgery.