ArticleMolecular imaging and radionuclide therapy2017
Molecular Profiling of Thyroid Nodules: Current Role for the Afirma Gene Expression Classifier on Clinical Decision Making.
Article in Molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Towards an Integrated Multi-Omic Approach to Improve the Diagnostic Accuracy of Fine-Needle Aspiration in Thyroid Nodules with Indeterminate Cytology.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Molecular testing in indeterminate thyroid nodules: an additional tool for clinical decision-making.Pathologica · 2023Review
- Cost-effectiveness analysis of molecular testing for cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules.Journal of otolaryngology - head & neck surgery = Le Journal d'oto-rhino-laryngologie et de chirurgie cervico-faciale · 2022Article
- Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Involving the Thyroid Gland: A Clinicopathologic Study of 17 Patients.International journal of surgical pathology · 2022Review
- Aggressive Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Presenting with Metastasis to the Pancreas.Case reports in endocrinology · 2022Article
- Implications of US radiomics signature for predicting malignancy in thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology.European radiology · 2021Article
- Current Achievements and Applications of Transcriptomics in Personalized Cancer Medicine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Features of Cytologically Indeterminate Molecularly Benign Nodules Treated With Surgery.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2020Article
- Review
- Afirma Gene Sequencing Classifier Compared with Gene Expression Classifier in Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules.Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association · 2019Article
- Clinical impact of testing for mutations and microRNAs in thyroid nodules.Diagnostic cytopathology · 2019Article
- Identification of Hürthle cell cancers: solving a clinical challenge with genomic sequencing and a trio of machine learning algorithms.BMC systems biology · 2019Article
- Analytical Verification Performance of Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier in the Diagnosis of Cytologically Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2019Article
- Performance of a Genomic Sequencing Classifier for the Preoperative Diagnosis of Cytologically Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules.JAMA surgery · 2018Article
- Current methodologies for molecular screening of thyroid nodules.Gland surgery · 2018Review
- Tailored surgery according to molecular analysis in differentiated thyroid carcinomas.Gland surgery · 2018Review
- Article
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Thyroid fine-needle aspiration biopsy results are cytologically indeterminate in 15-30% of cases. When these nodules undergo diagnostic surgery, approximately three-quarters are histologically benign. These unnecessary surgeries diminish quality of life, generate complications, and increase healthcare costs. The Afirma gene expression classifier (GEC) is validated to pre-operatively identify cytologically indeterminate nodules likely to be truly benign so that surgery can be avoided. Its performance is supported by robust multicenter prospective and blinded clinical validation studies, and supported by extensive independent clinical utility publications which show a marked reduction in surgery among patients with benign Afirma GEC results. To rule-out cancer and avoid unnecessary diagnostic surgery, Afirma's quality and depth of validation stand alone. The accuracy of a benign result is the negative predictive value (NPV). Afirma achieves an NPV ≥94% among cytologically indeterminate nodules (Bethesda III or IV). Thirteen clinical utility studies describing 1468 GEC benign patients demonstrate that few Afirma GEC benign nodules undergo surgery, including after 3 years of follow-up. With a specificity of 52%, over half of the truly benign nodules with indeterminate cytology receive a benign GEC result. High test sensitivity is critical to safely rule out cancer. The Afirma GEC's 90% sensitivity means that regardless of the pre-test risk of malignancy, 90% of all malignant nodules are GEC suspicious. The Afirma GEC has transformed patient care. Where the majority of cytologically indeterminate patients were once operated to determine if the nodule was benign or malignant, now nearly half of these surgeries can be avoided.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.