“…Each molecule was measured using different assays: i) ELISA-like assays such as radioimmunoassay (RIA), immune radiometric assay (IRMA) and chemiluminescence were used in 16 studies (7, 9,11-13, 16, 17, 21, 24, 28, 31-33, 36, 38, 39), ii) immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 22 (8, 10, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30, 34, 35, 37, 40-42, 44-46, 48, 49), iii) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 6 (14,15,20,34,43,47), iv) reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in 7 (8,18,26,31,48,50,51), v) immunolight in one (23), vi) northern analysis in 3 (29,33,36), vii) in situ hybridization in one (34), viii) western blot in 2 (36,41) and ix) guanidium thiocyanate method in one (36). Eight of them referred only to benign thyroid diseases (9,11,12,17,19,21,24,33), one to medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) (39), one to anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) (32), 7 to papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) (15,23,30,40,41,43,44), and the rest to combinations of benign and malignant tumors. Nineteen studies performed correlation analyses between the studied molecule and factors, such as tumor size, sex, age, aggressiveness, capsular, muscular, vascular or lymph nodes invasion (8-11, 13, 17, 18-21, 27,...…”