ArticleJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2024
Distinguishing benign and malignant thyroid nodules using plasma trimethylamine N-oxide, carnitine, choline and betaine.
Article in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Serum Trimethylamine-International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Non-invasive detection of metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma after radical surgery using salivary metabolomic biomarkers.Archives of endocrinology and metabolism · 2026Article
- Gut microbiota and metabolite profiles in thyroid cancer lymph node metastasis: a multi-omics analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Gut Microbiota and Its Metabolites and Their Association with the Risk of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Nutrients · 2024Article
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11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
purposeTrimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut microbiome-derived metabolite, and its precursors (carnitine, choline, betaine) have not been fully examined in relation to thyroid cancer (TC) risk. The aim of this study was to assess the value of TMAO and its precursors in diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.
methodsIn this study, high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was utilized to measure the levels of plasma TMAO and its precursors (choline, carnitine, and betaine) in 215 TC patients, 63 benign thyroid nodules (BTN) patients and 148 healthy controls (HC). The distribution of levels of TMAO and its precursors among the three groups were compared by the Kruskal-Wallis test. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, and the predictive accuracy of single and combined biomarkers.
resultsIn comparison to HC, TC showed higher levels of TMAO and lower levels of its precursors (carnitine, choline, and betaine) (all P < 0.001). Plasma choline (P < 0.01) and betaine (P < 0.05) were declined in BTN than HC. The levels of carnitine (P < 0.001) and choline (P < 0.05) were significantly higher in BTN than that in TC group. Plasma TMAO showed lower levels in TC with lymph node metastasis (101.5 (73.1-144.5) ng/ml) than those without lymph node metastasis (131 (84.8-201) ng/ml, P < 0.05). Combinations of these four metabolites achieved good performance in the differential diagnosis, with the area under the ROC curve of 0.703, 0.741, 0.793 when discriminating between TC and BTN, BTN and HC, TC and HC, respectively.
conclusionPlasma TMAO, along with its precursors could serve as new biomarkers for the diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.
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