Incidental Thyroid Cancer in Cases With Inflammatory Thyroid Lesion (Thyroid cancer)

June 11, 2026 updated by: Abdelrahman Mohamed Salah, Minia University

Incidental Thyroid Cancer in Patients With Inflammatory Thyroid Lesions: A Cohort Study From a Tertiary Care Center

This study aim to assess for the incidence of thyroid cancer in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis (Inflammatory thyroid Lesions)

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The relationship between chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis is well established in multiple organ systems, including the liver, stomach, and colon. In the thyroid, chronic lymphocytic infiltration may create a pro-inflammatory microenvironment that promotes cellular proliferation, DNA damage, and oncogenic transformation. Several studies have suggested an increased risk of thyroid cancer, particularly papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), in patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

200

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Egypt
    • Minya Governorate
      • Minya, Minya Governorate, Egypt, 61611
        • Faculty of medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. All types of autoimmune thyroiditis, including:

    • Graves' disease
    • Toxic multinodular goiter (TMNG)
    • Toxic nodule (TN)
    • Hashimoto thyroiditis
    • Unspecified toxic nodular goiter
  2. Age between 18 and 60 years
  3. Underwent thyroid surgical operation (lobectomy or total thyroidectomy)

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Patients with known differentiated thyroid cancer before surgery
  2. Recurrent thyroid disease (previous thyroid surgery)
  3. Patients unfit for operation (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade IV or V)
  4. Incomplete histopathological data
  5. Patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma or anaplastic thyroid cancer

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Inflammatory thyroid lesions
The presence of thyroiditis was determined considering histological diagnosis taken post-surgery, and we considered the correlation between any presence of thyroiditis and all Differentiated thyroid cancer, taken from the histopathological examination after pathologic analysis.
Other: total thyroidectomy
Diagnosis of differentiated thyroid cancer: The presence of thyroid cancer was determined based on histopathological examination of the resected specimen

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
• Incidence of incidental differentiated thyroid cancer with autoimmune thyroiditis
Time Frame: At time of surgery (postoperative histopathology)

Title: Incidence of incidental differentiated thyroid cancer

Unit of measure: % of patients (proportion)

Metric/method: Histopathological examination of surgical specimen
At time of surgery (postoperative histopathology)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Incidence of incidental differentiated thyroid cancer by autoimmune thyroiditis subtype
Time Frame: At time of surgery

Unit of Measure

Percentage of patients within each subtype (Hashimoto thyroiditis, Graves' disease, toxic nodular goiter)

Metric / Method

Histopathological classification of thyroiditis subtype and cancer diagnosis; comparison using Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test
At time of surgery
Outcome 3A: Age comparison
Time Frame: At time of surgery
Outcome Measure Title Mean age difference between patients with and without incidental differentiated thyroid cancer Unit of Measure Years (mean ± standard deviation) Metric / Method Unpaired Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney U test
At time of surgery
Outcome 3B: Sex distribution
Time Frame: Preoperative (within 30 days before surgery)
Field Entry Outcome Measure Title Proportion of patients with positive anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies who have incidental differentiated thyroid cancer Unit of Measure Percentage of patients Metric / Method Serological testing (anti-TPO antibodies measured by immunoassay); Chi-square test or logistic regression for association
Preoperative (within 30 days before surgery)
Secondary Outcome 4 - Tumor characteristics Outcome 4A: Tumor size
Time Frame: At time of surgery
Outcome Measure Title Maximum tumor diameter in incidental differentiated thyroid cancers Unit of Measure Centimeters (mean ± standard deviation and range) Metric / Method Pathological measurement of surgical specimen
At time of surgery
Outcome 4B: Microcarcinoma proportion
Time Frame: At time of surgery
Outcome Measure Title Proportion of incidental thyroid cancers that are microcarcinomas (≤1 cm) Unit of Measure Percentage of patients with incidental cancer Metric / Method Pathological measurement; defined as tumor size ≤1 cm
At time of surgery
Outcome 4C: Lymph node metastasis
Time Frame: At time of surgery
Outcome Measure Title Proportion of patients with incidental differentiated thyroid cancer who have lymph node metastasis Unit of Measure Percentage of patients with incidental cancer Metric / Method Histopathological examination of central neck dissection specimens
At time of surgery
Outcome 4D: Multifocality
Time Frame: At time of surgery
Outcome Measure Title Proportion of patients with incidental differentiated thyroid cancer who have multifocal disease Unit of Measure Percentage of patients with incidental cancer Metric / Method Histopathological examination (two or more distinct tumor foci)
At time of surgery
Outcome 3E: Extrathyroidal extension
Time Frame: At time of surgery
Outcome Measure Title Proportion of patients with incidental differentiated thyroid cancer who have extrathyroidal extension Unit of Measure Percentage of patients with incidental cancer Metric / Method Histopathological examination (minimal or extensive extension)
At time of surgery

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Minia University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2026

Study Completion (Actual)

May 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 6, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 11, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 17, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 17, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 11, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1462/02/2025

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The data will be available upon a reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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