Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2011) 26 P65

ECE2011 Poster Presentations Endocrine tumours and neoplasia (37 abstracts)

Significance of BRAF expression in nodular thyroid disease: prognostic and therapeutic implications

Ioana Golu 1 , Adriana Neghina 2 , Marioara Cornianu 3 , Daniela Amzar 1 , Melania Balas 1 , Dana David 2 & Mihaela Vlad 1


1Department of Endocrinology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy ‘V Babes’, Timisoara, Romania; 2Department of Biochemistry, University of Medicine and Pharmacy ‘V Babes’, Timisoara, Romania; 3Department of Pathology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy ‘V Babes’, Timisoara, Romania.


Background: Whereas many papers have reported on clinical and morpho pathological features of thyroid cancer with BRAFV600E mutation, a limited number of studies have been focused on the quantification of BRAF mRNA expression in thyroid tumors.

The present study aimed to assess the expression of BRAF transcript in fine needle aspiration specimens, prelevated from cases with nodular thyroid disease.

Material and methods: The mRNA expression levels of BRAF and GAPDH (housekeeping gene) was evaluated in 23 malignant and 34 benign thyroid tumors by means of semiquantitative RT-PCR, with the assessment of the crossing point values for each sample in triplicates.

Results: The mean age of the study group was 49.1±19.0 years, with a female to male ratio (F/M) of 8.6/1. An over expression was documented in about 50% of analyzed carcinomas, with the following distribution in patients with papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC): four out of seven cases presented the classical variant of the disease, two out of five cases micro PTC and four out of nine cases the follicular variant of PTC. A significant over expression was noticed in the tumor (2ΔΔCT = 4608.24) and also in the perinodular tissue (2ΔΔCT = 3929.1) of one case with follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) and follicular adenoma, as compared with the samples with benign tumors (2ΔΔCT = 0.98).

Conclusions: The significant over expression of BRAF mRNA could be a feature of FTC, highlighting an over activity of Ras–BRAF–MAP kinase pathway, with subsequent increase of their invasive potential.

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