Open AccessArticle

Alfredo Campennì

M’hammed Aguennouz

Massimiliano Siracusa

Angela Alibrandi

Francesca Polito

Rosaria Oteri

Sergio Baldari

Rosaria Maddalena Ruggeri

Luca Giovanella

1

Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morpho-Functional Imaging, Unit of Nuclear Medicine, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy

2

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Unit of Neurology and Neuromuscular Diseases, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy

3

Department of Economics, Unit of Statistical and Mathematical Sciences, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy

4

Department of Human Pathology DETEV, Unit of Endocrinology, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy

5

Clinic for Nuclear Medicine and Competence Centre for Thyroid Diseases, Imaging Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland

6

Clinic for Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, University of Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland

*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: David Wong

Received: 27 October 2022 / Revised: 10 November 2022 / Accepted: 14 November 2022 / Published: 16 November 2022

About 30% of patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) experience persistent/recurrent disease within 10 years after an initial treatment, serum thyroglobulin (Tg) representing the gold standard for surveillance. However, the measurement of serum Tg is unreliable in the presence of anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb). The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the role of circulating miRNA as valuable biomarkers for the early detection of persistent disease in TgAb-positive PCT patients. In our series, the serum miRNA (221, 222, 375, 155, and 146b) levels were >two-folds higher in the PTC patients than the controls. Moreover, a decrease of 50% or more in circulating miRNAs levels compared to the baseline was observed in patients with an excellent response to therapy but not in those with persistent disease, respectively. Accordingly, serum miRNA kinetics may provide additional and independent information to early detect persistent disease in PTC patients with an uninformative Tg and emerge as a candidate alternative PTC biomarker.