Thyroglobulin Measurement for Detecting Lymph Node Metastases in Thyroid Cancer Patients

Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), which includes papillary and follicular cancer, is responsible for 90% of all thyroid cancers (Sherma, 2003; Maseeh et al., 2013). According to the American Thyroid Association guidelines, the initial treatment for DTC consists of total or near-total thyroidectomy and cervical lymph node (LN) dissection with or without radioiodine (RAI) ablation (Cooper et al., 2009). The treatment is completed with thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression therapy using levothyroxine (Cooper et al., 2009). A minority of patients with DTC may develop recurrence many years after initial treatment, primarily in the cervical LNs, so a long-term follow-up is required (Schlumberger et al., 2004; Cooper et al., 2009). During the follow-up, serum thyroglobulin (Tg)