Background: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide and is considered to be
the most common endocrinal malignancy with a higher increase in its incidence every year. This rapid continuous
increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer is suggested to be as a result of many factors as the newly developed
and used radiological studies which can detect subclinical cases not discovered by physical examination.
Aim of the work: This study aims to evaluate the relation of level of serum leptin in papillary thyroid carcinoma
and its variability to patients and tumor characteristics.
Patients and methods: In this study we measured the level of serum leptin in 20 cases of papillary thyroid
carcinoma and in 20 patients with simple nodular goiter as a control group and correlated its levels with the patient
characteristics as age, sex and BMI as well as the tumor characteristics and aggressiveness like tumor type, tumor
size, lymph node (LN) metastasis and extrathyroidal extension.
Results: We found that the levels of serum leptin were markedly higher in the group with PTC more than the
control group. There was no significant difference of serum leptin among the different pathological subtypes of PTC
and the correlation between serum leptin and infiltration of the surroundings was significant. Moreover, increased
levels of serum leptin were associated with a larger tumor size. These results are consistent with many studies
concerned with the same issue despite being conflicting with some of other studies.
Conclusion: Serum leptin was found to have a strong association with PTC regarding the increased incidence and
the aggressive behavior so it may be used in the diagnosis of PTC and prediction of the prognosis.