title: Urinary neopterin levels in patients with thyroid cancer.
abstract: Increased urinary neopterin concentrations have been described in many cancers. We aimed to evaluate the urinary neopterin levels in thyroid cancer. Sixty-nine patients with thyroid cancer, 76 patients with benign thyroid pathology and 33 healthy subjects were evaluated. First morning urine samples were collected from the patients and normal subjects for neopterin and creatinine measurement and stored at -80 °C until analysed. Neopterin levels were 149.3 (15.2-1,602.2) μmol/mol creatinine in the malignant group, 32 (5.2-275.6) μmol/mol creatinine in the benign group and 9.2 (2.7-78.7) μmol/mol creatinine in normal subjects (p ≤ 0.001). Urinary neopterin levels were significantly higher in patients with thyroid cancer than patients with benign thyroid pathologies and normal subjects. Also the patients with benign thyroid pathologies had a higher urinary neopterin level than the normal subjects. Malignant group was divided to two groups; patients with/without chronic thyroiditis (confirmed histologically). There were 22 (31.9 %) patients with and 47 (68.1 %) patients without chronic thyroiditis. Urinary levels of neopterin didn't differ in both groups (168.6 (21.3-716.8) μmol/mol creatinine and 135.3 (15.2-1,602.2) μmol/mol creatinine respectively; p = 0.381). Urinary neopterin levels are high in thyroid cancer patients independently from the presence of chronic thyroiditis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, School of Medicine, Near East University, Nicosia, Cyprus ; Hakki Boratas Cad. Kemal Sayın Apt., No: 8 Daire 3, Girne, KKTC, Mersin, 10 Turkey.
authors.forename: Serap Soytac
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Inancli
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sedat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caner
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fevzi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Balkan
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abbas Ali
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Tam
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gulnur
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guler
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Reyhan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ersoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ankara Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Bekir
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cakir
keywords: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis; Inflammation; Neopterin; Thyroid cancer