Instead of referring patients for ultrasound-guided biopsies, physicians may now be able to rely on specific conventional ultrasound characteristics to determine the pathology of some thyroid nodules, according to recent findings.

"Thyroid nodules affect more than 50% of the population, and statistically more than 85% of them are incidental and benign,” said Barry Sacks, M.D., lead author of the study. "Unfortunately, this means millions of patients are undergoing unnecessary biopsies as doctors are finding a very low number of cancers. This is an enormous cost burden and provokes a lot of unnecessary anxiety for patients,” said Dr. Sacks. "The purpose of our study, performed at MetroWest Medical Center in Natick, MA [USA], and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA [USA], was to determine whether conventional ultrasound alone could predict a specific nodule type--aiding differentiation between benign and malignant thyroid nodules,” he said.

The study findings were presented May 5, 2010, at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) 2010 annual meeting in San Diego, CA, USA.

"Specifically, we reviewed the accuracy of conventional ultrasound comparing it to the final pathology determined by ultrasound-guided biopsy,” said Dr. Sacks. Of the predicted benign lesions, ultrasound prediction was correct in 89% of the benign cases. Of the lesions that were highly suspicious for malignancy, ultrasound prediction was correct in 94% of the cases. Our data suggest that subsequent triage of some thyroid nodules may be able to be performed solely by ultrasound appearance which will allow us to dramatically reduce the number of unnecessary thyroid nodule biopsies performed,” concluded Dr. Sacks.
 

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