Association of overweight and obesity with papillary thyroid carcinoma

Background. Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC) is the most frequently diagnosed malignant neoplasm of the endocrine system, accounting for more than 80% of other histopathological types of thyroid cancer worldwide, including Ukraine. Both overweight (Body Mass Index (BMI) [25.0–29.9] kg/m2) and obesity (BMI >30 kg/m2) might be considered a risk factor for PTC development. Besides, it may be associated with negative clinical characteristics such as obesity and overweight or biological aggressiveness of PTC such as larger tumor size, invasion to thyroid structures or adjacent neck tissues, metastatic spread etc., which are not sufficiently studied in Ukraine. Aim. To investigate and evaluate the features of the overweight and obesity in the patients with PTC and compare them with patients with PTC and normal weight. Materials and Methods. Our study involved 91 patients with the diagnosis of PTС who underwent surgical treatment at Verum Expert Clinic (Kyiv, Ukraine). The study groups consisted of 65 patients with PTС and overweight/obesity (BMI ≥25 kg/m2), and 26 patients with PTС and normal weight. Written informed consent to participate was obtained from all patients, and the study was approved by the local ethical committee. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was applied to compare quantitative variables between groups. Categorical variables were compared using Fisher's exact test (two-tailed). Statistica 12 (TIBCO Software Inc., USA) and Graph­Pad Prism 10 (GraphPad Software, LLC, USA) statistical software were used for data analyses. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results. A statistically significant difference was found in the frequency of lateral neck dissection: it was performed in 12 (46%) patients with PTC and normal weight, compared to 22 (34%) patients with PTC and overweight/obesity (p=0.031). Conclusions. Overweight and obesity are highly prevalent among patients with PTC in our cohort. However, the higher rate of lateral neck dissection in the normal-weight group suggests that factors other than BMI, possibly related to preoperative diagnosis, played a more critical role in surgical planning in this study. Keywords: cancer risk, lymph node excision, neoplasm invasiveness, body mass index, thyroid neoplasms, risk factors.