Diagnostic value of preoperative hemogram parameters in patients with papillary thyroid cancer: An age-and sex-matched retrospective study

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of preoperative hemogram parameters —platelet count (PLT), plateletcrit (PCT), platelet distribution width (PDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), and red cell distribution width (RDW)— in differentiating papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) from benign thyroid pathology in an age- and sex-matched patient series. Material and Methods: A total of 2.080 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy at the Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery between January 2015 and January 2023 were retrospectively reviewed. After applying exclusion criteria and removing outliers, 1.955 patients were identified. Cases with a histopathological diagnosis of PTC were matched 1:1 with patients with benign thyroid pathology based on sex and 10-year age groups. The final analysis included 348 PTC patients and 348 benign patients (n=696). Preoperative hemogram parameters were compared between the groups using the Mann-Whitney U test, and the diagnostic value was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: /L; p=0.723), PCT (0.270±0.072 vs. 0.270±0.075; p=0.680), PDW (14.1±2.9 vs. 13.8±2.8; p=0.300), MPV (9.54±1.33 vs. 9.42±1.14 fL; p=0.591), or RDW (13.8±1.4 vs. 14.1±1.5; p=0.053)— showed a statistically significant difference between groups. ROC analysis confirmed that none of the parameters demonstrated meaningful diagnostic value (AUC: PLT 0.508, PCT 0.510, PDW 0.473, MPV 0.488, RDW 0.543). Conclusion: When age- and sex-matching are applied, preoperative PLT, PCT, PDW, MPV, and RDW values do not provide meaningful discrimination between PTC and benign thyroid pathology. Positive findings reported in the literature may be partly attributable to demographic confounding. The potential diagnostic value of combined indices or integration with other complete blood count parameters warrants investigation in prospective studies.