Wojtowicz W, Pawelka D, Balcerzak W and Mlynarz P
Carcinoma of the thyroid gland is the most common cancer of the endocrine system. It accounts for approximately 10% of thyroid focal lesions, and the incidence of this cancer is increasing. A valuable technique for differentiating cancerous from benign nodules is fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNA) with cytological verification. Unfortunately, in 30% of cases, FNA results are not sufficient to determine the proper method of treatment. Therefore, many patients are referred for diagnostic surgery and histopathologic examination. Despite the development of new imaging and molecular diagnostic techniques, no universal marker for pre-surgery identification of malignant changes in the thyroid is available. Modern measuring techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy - NMR - and mass spectrometry – MS, in combination with chemometric analysis led to the development of a new field of biology – metabolomics. Metabolomics allows for the analysis of biochemical processes in biological systems by assessing the metabolome (set of all metabolites - small molecular compounds with a molecular weight <1000 Da - contained in measured biological material). The metabolite profile quantitatively and qualitatively changes in response to disturbances of homeostasis. The promising results of the use of metabolomics methods as diagnostic tools for certain cancers and our experience with using metabolomics methods to differentiate benign from malignant thyroid tumors suggest that this field of science, which has been growing for several years, will improve the diagnosis and differentiation of thyroid cancer.
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