Thyroglobulin autoantibodies as surrogate biomarkers in the management of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma

Differentiated thyroid cancer is a rare malignancy, but leaves numerous survivors for life-long follow-up. The cornerstone in current guidelines for follow-up is by measuring the thyroid specific tumour marker, thyroglobulin in serum. Most patients can be followed by this method, but some thyroid cancer patients have antithyroglobulin antibodies in serum, both at diagnosis and after treatment, where follow-up is commenced. These antibodies interfere technically in the immunological methods for measuring thyroglobulin, and the antithyroglobulin antibody positive patients are thus eliminated from following current guidelines. In recent years studies have indicated that following the concentration of antithyroglobulin antibodies in serum may be a surrogate marker for recurrence of the thyroid carcinoma. This has recently resulted in publication of an expert position paper, providing a flow scheme for these particular patients. The current review summarises the literature which is the basis for the paper.