A benign genomic classifier for thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology: a critical appraisal

Alexander and colleagues recently published, in the New England Journal of Medicine, a 19 month prospective multicenter genomic classifier validation study for benign thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology, involving 49 clinical sites, 3,789 patients, and 4,812 fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) specimens. This study was sponsored by Veracyte Incorporated (Veracyte Inc. South San Francisco California U.S.A.) (1). The development of the FNAB-trained genomic classifier utilized was described in a prior Veracyte sponsored study published 2 years earlier, and was composed of 167 genes (142 genes in the main classifier and 25 genes to filter out rare neoplasms) (2).