The Role of Trace Elements in Thyroid Cancers

Abstract

Thyroid cancer is one of the most common endocrine cancers. Trace elements act as enzyme components in biological systems or as catalysts in chemical reactions in cells. For this reason, it is known that excessive or insufficient intake of many elements causes many diseases, including various types of cancer. This study aims to evaluate the element concentration in thyroid tissue, nodule and serum of thyroid cancer patients. The study was conducted on a total of 60 participants, 21 malignant and 39 benign. In thyroid tissue, nodule and serum samples obtained from malignant and benign individuals, copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), aluminum (Al), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), silver (Ag), chromium (Cr), selenium (Se), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) were evaluated using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Nodule Pb level in the malignant group was found to be significantly higher than that of the nodule Pb in the benign group. In addition, as a result of the evaluation between nodule and tissue in the malignant and benign groups, Al and Mn were higher in the malignant group than in the nodule in the thyroid tissue; Ni, Cu and Se were found to be significantly lower. In addition, Al was higher in the benign group than the nodule in the thyroid tissue, while Ni was significantly lower (p <0.05). All these results suggest that trace elements have serious roles in the etiology of thyroid cancer.

Keywords

• Thyroid cancer
• trace element
• inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

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