Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify molecular markers associated with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients and to determine whether there was a correlation between clinicopathological features or molecular markers and the outcome of radioiodine therapy.
Patients and methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 68 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and 6 patients with follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC), who underwent iodine treatment. All patients were divided into a cured group (no evidence for disease) and a noncured group (presence of residual or recurrent disease). Immunohistochemical analysis of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)-2 (C-erbB-2), ephrin receptor (EphA-2), and sodium-iodide symporter (NIS) was performed in all DTC specimens (68 PTCs, 6 FTCs) and in 14 follicular adenoma specimens.
Results: Male patients and patients with lymph node and distant metastases had poorer prognosis. Overexpression of ER, PR, HER-2, EphA-2, and NIS was observed in 50.0% (37), 73.0% (54), 52.7% (39), 67.5% (50), and 70.3% (52) of DTC patients, respectively, and was significantly higher than in follicular adenoma patients (0%, 7.14%, 14.29%, 35.7%, and 35.7%, respectively). However, in patients with DTC, no significant difference in the expression of any marker was seen between the cured group and noncured group.
Conclusions: Male gender, and lymph node and distant metastases were found to be poor prognostic factors for patients with DTC. Higher expressions of ER, PR, HER-2, EphA-2, and NIS were associated with DTC, but were not correlated with the effectiveness of radioiodine treatment.