(2) In the subjects at risk, early screening for the various types of endocrine lesions may then start in childhood and be performed using specific biological markers of MTC, pheochromocytoma and primary hyperparathyroidism, and particularly, basal and pentagastrin-stimulated calcitonin measurement, which is known to be the most sensitive marker for the monitoring of MTC.
Three surgically confirmed MTC cases that were detected by the MTC Classifier had low basal serum calcitonin values, indicating these would have been missed by traditional calcitonin screening methods.
Clinical follow up of the patient revealed elevated serum calcitonin after 6 yr. Thyroidectomy was performed and revealed a small medullary thyroid carcinoma.
The two groups did not differ in terms of multifocality of MTC (pT1b), lymph node involvement (pN1) or bilateral lymph node metastasis (pN1b), or preoperative stimulated and postoperative basal and stimulated serum calcitonin.
As for adults, the diagnosis of childhood MTC is based on serum calcitonin (Ct) and neck ultrasound with fine-needle aspiration if a thyroid nodule is present.
Tumor staging, either postoperatively or by imaging, and measuring the tumor markers thyroglobulin for DTC and calcitonin for MTC, allow for dynamic risk-adapted stratification for follow-up procedures.
Usually, the patient presents with a thyroid mass or neck node metastasis along with high levels of calcitonin and preoperative fine needle aspiration biopsy suggestive of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid.
The preoperative basal serum levels of Ctn (234.8 ± 188.4 vs. 44.4 ± 27.5, p < 0.01) and postoperative Ctn (49.8 ± 86.4 vs. 3.7 ± 2.2, p = 0.001) in MTC patients with RET mutations were significantly higher than those in MTC patients without RET mutation.
Recently, in normal thyroid and in medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), we detected an additional splicing pathway involving the splicing of exon 4 to exon 5 and leading to the expression of a third CALC I mRNA: CT mRNA II.
Thorough family studies that used the radioimmunoassay procedure for calcitonin (CT) during the past 12 years have provided data on 70 patients from 12 kindreds with hereditary medullary thyroid cancer (hereditary group) and 28 patients with sporadic or nonhereditary medullary thyroid cancer (sporadic group).
Calcitonin screening programs have proved to be effective in early detection of medullary thyroid carcinoma, not only in patients with known risk factors for the development of hereditary tumors.
Multivariate analysis showed that preoperative basal calcitonin was a significant predictive factor for MTC superior to age at thyroid surgery when analyzing the entire period (p = 0.009) and the RET-era separately (p = 0.021).
After leaving the small clinic in Indiana where I practiced for 19 years, in 1970 I came to Henry Ford Hospital where I continued my search for hereditary HPT and encountered families of MEN-2 by applying calcitonin studies to the families of our cases of medullary thyroid cancer.
In conclusion, Prox1 expression in MTC is positively correlated with Ki67 and with the immunohistochemical expression of chromogranin A and calcitonin.
Amylin/islet amyloid polypeptide expression in medullary carcinoma of the thyroid: correlation with the expression of the related calcitonin/CGRP genes.
Diagnostic value of selected biochemical markers in the detection of recurrence of medullary thyroid cancer - comparison of calcitonin, procalcitonin, chromogranin A, and carcinoembryonic antigen.
Currently, no effective therapy exists for patients suffering from progressive medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), a calcitonin (CT)-secreting C cell tumor.