Serum Thyroglobulin in Thyroid Cancer

Serum thyroglobulin as a preclinical tumour marker in subgroups of thyroid cancer

“…At diagnosis, but before therapy, other investigations have reported that 43% (16/37) of patients with papillary carcinomas and 81% (21/26) of patients with follicular carcinomas have S-Tg elevation above the 97.5 percentile (40,ugl-1) of the normal range (Refetoft & Lever, 1983). There is general agreement that patients with anaplastic carcinomas usually do not have S-Tg elevation (Pacini et al, 1980;Black et al, 1981;Ericsson et al, 1984;Torriginai et al, 1969;Basclueri et al, 1981), but such elevation can occur (Feldt-Rasmussen et al, 1983;Bottger et al, 1980;Monaco et al, 1983). We found that 25% (9/36) of cases with papillary, 100% (4/4) with follicular and 100% (3/3) with anaplastic carcinomas had S-Tg >90 jug l-years before cancer diagnosis.…”

“…All slides have been reviewed. The laboratory tests used are well established and in clinical use as routine tests in patients with different types of thyroid diseases (Black et al, 1981).…”

Molecular technology and the recombinant TSH have changed diagnostics of thyroid carcinoma with positive I-131 whole body scan but low serum thyroglobulin

“…In these cases diagnostic WBS can give more clinical information than serum Tg measurements (Müller-Gärtner, Schneider 1988;Aiello, Manni 1990;Pacini et al, 1995;Franceschi 1996). Another explanation of low levels of Tg in patients with persistent disease identified by scintigraphy can be found in structural changes of Tg which can occur as integral part of malignant transformation (Ashcraft, Herle 1981;Black et al, 1981;Franceschi et al, 1996). The alterations of Tg structure can be based on reduced iodine content (Schneider et al, 1983;Kohno et al, 1987), and different amounts of several amino acids and monosaccharides as demonstrated by Kohno et al who found that Tg in papillary adenocarcinomas differs from normal Tg (Kohno et al, 1987).…”

Can we measure serum thyroglobulin?

“…One of the earlier RIAs to be reported used a polyclonal antibody and appeared to have minimal interference from endogenous Ab. 17,18 The same polyclonal antibody has also been used extensively in an RIA in the USA. 24 For immunometric assays based on monoclonal antibodies (mAb), the selection of mAb to de¢ned epitopes has allowed the development of an immunoradiometric assay that is claimed to have minimal interference from endogenous antibodies.…”