Diagnostic strategy for malignant and benign thyroid nodules smaller than 10 mm based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and machine learning

•Silver nanowire membrane is selected as a substrate to amplify spectral differences.•SERS spectra of FNA samples are acquired for thyroid nodules small than 10 mm.•PLS-DA classification model provides satisfactory results with an AUC of 97.479%•The diagnostic strategy based on SERS and PLS-DA identifies all malignant nodules.