A Multicenter, Double-blind, Prospective Cohort Study of Diagnostic Significance of Circulating Tumor Cells in Patients With Thyroid Nodules
A Multicenter, Double-blind, Prospective Cohort Study of Diagnostic Significance of Circulating Tumor Cells in Patients With Thyroid Nodules
Thyroid nodule patients with suggestion of fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) offered by ultrasound are enrolled in the study. CTCs tested by Optimizing method and FNAB will be performed simultaneously. This is a double blind trial which pathologists and inspectors of CTCs don't know the result of each other. Surgical pathology and diagnostic results of FNAB is the primary endpoint and comparison will be made to see if CTCs combined with ultrasound can get similar diagnostic performance as FNAB. The diagnostic results of FNAB included Bethesda class II and more than V which are defined as benign and malignant, respectively.
Some retrospective analysises showed CTCs is considered to be valuable for diagnosis, staging, prognosis and follow-up in several types of cancers and some mRNA markers are helpful in differentiating patients with benign versus malignant thyroid disease. However, the lack of sensitivity and specificity of mRNA measurements restricted their clinical application. The aim of this study is to see if optimizing test method combined with ultrasound can get similar diagnostic performance. 200 patients with thyroid nodules (≤2cm) which need to undergo FNAB will be enrolled in four centers of northern China. Patients will simultaneously undergo CTCs tests and FNAB. And following treatments will be performed according to the previous standard. Allowed by the patients, the investigators will obtain 10ml peripheral blood samples from the participants to make a CTCs test before any FNAB. The primary end point is the pathologically confirmed benign versus malignant thyroid disease, which including surgical pathology and diagnostic results of FNAB.
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
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