Objective To analyze the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with benign thyroid nodules(BTN) and thyroid carcinoma(TC),and explore the clinical value of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB)in diagnosis of TC.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the data of 2918 cases with thyroid carcinoma,who underwent surgery in the People's Hospital of Wuhan University between January 2011 and February 2015.Results Patients aged younger than 45 years old accounted for 26.23％ and 51.26％ in BTN group and CT group,respectively,and the difference between the two groups were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Male patients accounted for 16.82％ and 20.15％ in BTN group and CT group,respectively,and the difference between the two groups were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Patients with family history of thyroid related diseases accounted for 2.93％ and 3.70％ in BTN group and CT group,respectively,and there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05).Patients with solitary lesion accounted for 40.42％ and 47.95％ in BTN group and CT group,respectively,and the difference between the two groups were statistically significant(P ＜ 0.05).Af ter the application of FNAB,the percentage of the patients diagnosed with TC was increased by 4.83％ (P ＜ 0.05),and the diameter of nodular was increased by 4 cm (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion Patients with TC have a characteristic of earlier onset age,higher proportion of male patients and lower incidence of multifocality compared with patients with BTN.There was no statistically significant difference between the TC group with family history of thyroid related diseases and the BTN group.The application of FNAB avoids of unnecessary surgeries on some BTN patients with small pathological diameter of nodule,it is important for preoperative diagnosis of thyroid nodules.