HMGB1 and thyroid cancer: In our validated cohort (36 cases of thyroid cancer tissues and 52 cases of non-thyroid cancer tissues), ROC curve analysis indicated that HMGB1 expression level might be a promising marker for differentiating malignant thyroid cancer from normal tissue with a sensitivity of 88.9% and a specificity of 96.2% (an area under the ROC curve: 96.7%; Fig. 1e).