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Endocrine Abstracts (2015) 37 GP24.04 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.37.GP.24.04

ECE2015 Guided Posters Thyroid–genetics (8 abstracts)

Lymph node involvement using one-step nucleic acid amplification according to BRAF gene mutation status in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma submitted to lymph node dissection

Carles Zafon , Oscar Gonzalez , Jordi Temprana , Gabriel Obiols , Amparo Garcia-Burillo , Xavier Serres , José María Balibrea , Joan Castell , Jordi Mesa & Carmela Iglesias


Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.


Introduction: The relationship between the BRAF gene mutation in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and the presence of lymph node metastasis (LNM) is a subject of controversy.

Objective: To analyse the influence of BRAF mutation status in the characteristics of lymph nodes in patients with PTC submitted to lymph node dissection (LND).

Material and methods: Lymph nodes obtained from 20 patients (12 females, mean age 50±15 years old), corresponding to 21 LND were evaluated. LNM were detected using the molecular technique one-step nucleic acid amplification (OSNA), that measures the number of copies of mRNA of cytokeratin 19 (CK19) as a marker. According to the presence/absence of BRAF gene mutation cases additional clinical, histological, and node related variables were studied.

Results: A total of 277 lymph nodes from 21 LND were evaluated. BRAF was positive in 13 patients. There were no significant differences in clinical and histological variables according to BRAF mutation. There were no differences in the total number of nodes dissected per patient. There were 67 nodes from BRAF-negative patients and 210 nodes from BRAF-positive patients. There were no significant differences in lymph node weight or size between BRAF-negative and BRAF-positive cases. LNM were detected in 88 nodes, 14 out of 67 (20.9%) in the BRAF-negative group and 74 out of 210 (35.2%) in the BRAF-positive patients (P=0.03). Finally, no significant differences were found in the total copy number of mRNA of CK19 between both groups.

Conclusion: The probability of LNM is higher among those lymph nodes with BRAF mutated tumours than in BRAF not mutated cases. However, there were no differences in morphological characteristics of dissected lymph nodes.

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