Association Between Metabolic Syndrome and Clinicopathological Features of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer

Abstract Purpose: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a risk factor for differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Whether MetS impacts the aggressiveness of DTC is still unclear. We carried out this study to clarify this issue.Methods: We evaluated 455 consecutive DTC patients treated with surgery. The patients were divided into three groups based on their number of MetS components: patients without any MetS components, patients with one to two MetS components, and patients with three to five MetS components. The clinical features and histological aggressiveness of DTC at the time of diagnosis were evaluated.Results: A total of 455 patients were included in this study. Eighty-five patients had three or more metabolic components and were diagnosed as having MetS. Those patients with one or two metabolic components had higher risks for bilaterality (OR = 1.90, 95% CI:1.04–3.46) and capsule invasion (OR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.05–2.70). MetS was a risk factor for larger tumors (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.25–4.06), more lymph node metastasis (OR=3.14, 95% CI: 1.68-5.87), multifocal tumor (OR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.30–4.35), bilateral disease (OR = 3.39, 95% CI: 1.67–6.90), capsule invasion (OR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.15–4.45), and extrathyroid invasion (OR = 4.44, 95% CI: 1.67–11.81) after correction for age, sex, and the thyroid-stimulating hormone level (TSH).Conclusions: In our hospital-based cohort study, MetS was associated with the aggressiveness of DTC. This association was still significant after being adjusted for age, sex, and TSH.