Clinical Analysis of Preoperative Anti-thyroglobulin Antibody in Papillary Thyroid Cancer Between 2011 and 2015 in Beijing, China: A Retrospective Study

The anti-thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) has been suggested to be more common in patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Here, we performed a retrospective study investigated the correlation between TgAb level and PTC in Chinese patients between 2011 and 2015. Patients with goiter who underwent thyroidectomy and received a confirmed pathological diagnosis were enrolled into the study. Clinical characteristics and preoperative thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) level data were collected from all enrolled patients. Based on the preoperative TgAb test results, patients were divided into a TgAb negative (TgAb–) group (<60 IU/mL) and a TgAb positive (TgAb+) group (≧60 IU/mL). Of the 4,046 patients, 671 patients were TgAb+ while 3,375 patients were TgAb–. There were 535 (79.7%) patients with PTC in the TgAb+ group, and 2,154 (63.8%) patients with PTC in the TgAb– group. The prevalance of PTC was significantly higher in TgAb+ patients than in TgAb– patients. TgAb+ patients were stratified into four groups based on the TgAb titer. The prevalence of PTC did not increase with TgAb titer. No significant difference in TgAb level was noted in patients with different clinicopathologies, including TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, and multifocal carcinoma. Regression analysis suggested a higher risk of PTC malignancy among TgAb+ patients. Preoperative TgAb level ≥60 IU/mL might be associated with a higher risk of PTC. However, there was no titer-dependent association between elevated TgAb titer and PTC malignancy.