A meta-analysis of the value of serum TSH concentration in the diagnosis of differentiated thyroid cancer in patients with thyroid nodules

• Published in: Heliyon 2024-01, Vol.10 (2), p.e24391-e24391, Article e24391
• Main Authors: Fan, Xiao-Yu, You, Wei, Chen, Yao, Nie, Chen-Cong, Wang, Xue-Lian, Lei, Cheng, Song, Juan, Luo, Huai-Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Diagnosis, Sensitivity and specificity; Thyroid cancer,TSH,Meta-analysis
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24391

In recent years, most studies believe that high TSH level is positively correlated with the incidence of thyroid cancer, but it is still controversial. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between preoperative TSH level and thyroid malignant nodules using pathological diagnosis as the gold standard. To evaluate the role of serum TSH in predicting malignancy of thyroid nodules with uncertain cytology.As an important member of the hypothalamus–pituitary–thyroid axis in the endocrine system, TSH plays a crucial role in regulating the growth, differentiation, and function of thyroid cells (Zhang et al., 2023) [1]. Therefore, it has always been considered closely related to TC. Currently, most studies have compared the TSH levels of TC patients and individuals with benign thyroid disease or healthy controls. These findings from various studies indicated that TC patients often demonstrate elevated TSH levels, even when their TSH falls within the normal range. However, it is important to highlight that the current evidence primarily relies on cross-sectional studies, which mainly describe a phenomenon without establishing causal relationships. The involvement of TSH in the early onset or late progression of TC remains unknown, the interaction between TSH and other factors and how it affects TC is not well understood (Gubbi et al., 2020) [2].Symptoms of thyroid cancer are usually insidious, and early thyroid cancer often has no obvious clinical symptoms. Therefore, early detection and early treatment are particularly important, and how to improve the preoperative diagnosis rate of thyroid nodules is also a problem that clinicians pay close attention to. To evaluate the value of serum TSH concentration in the diagnosis of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in patients with thyroid nodules. Our study searched databases in both Chinese and English.China Academic Journals FULL-text Database (CNKI), China Online Journals, Chinese Scientific Journals database and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) were searched by computer. The English literature was established by PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and other databases until June 2022 to search for relevant literatures on the diagnostic test of serum TSH concentration in patients with thyroid nodule. The literatures that met the criteria were screened, the data were extracted, and the literature quality was evaluated. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likeli