High prevalence of RET/PTC rearrangements in Ukrainian and Belarussian post-Chernobyl thyroid papillary carcinomas: a strong correlation between RET/PTC3 and the solid-follicular variant.
A sharp increase in the incidence of pediatric thyroid papillary cancer was documented after the Chernobyl power plant explosion. An increased prevalence of rearrangements of the RET protooncogene (RET/PTC rearrangements) has been reported in Belarussian post-Chernobyl papillary carcinomas arising between 1990 and 1995. We analyzed 67 post-Chernobyl pediatric papillary carcinomas arising in 1995-1997 for RET/PTC activation: 28 were from Ukraine and 39 were from Belarus. The study, conducted by a combined immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR approach, demonstrated a high frequency (60.7% of the Ukrainian and 51.3% of the Belarussian cases) of RET/PTC activation. A strong correlation was observed between the solid-follicular subtype of papillary carcinoma and the RET/PTC3 isoform: 19 of the 24 RET/PTC-positive solid-follicular carcinomas harbored a RET/PTC3 rearrangement, whereas only 5 had a RET/PTC1 rearrangement. Taken together these results support the concept that RET/PTC activation plays a central role in the pathogenesis of thyroid papillary carcinomas in both Ukraine and Belarus after the Chernobyl accident.
Thomas
G A
GA
Thyroid Carcinogenesis Group, University of Cambridge, Strangeways Research Laboratory, United Kingdom.
Bunnell
H
H
Cook
H A
HA
Williams
E D
ED
Nerovnya
A
A
Cherstvoy
E D
ED
Tronko
N D
ND
Bogdanova
T I
TI
Chiappetta
G
G
Viglietto
G
G
Pentimalli
F
F
Salvatore
G
G
Fusco
A
A
Santoro
M
M
Vecchio
G
G
D000293:Adolescent; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005260:Female; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011210:Power Plants; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D002094:Republic of Belarus; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D014455:Ukraine
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; C416649:Ret protein, Drosophila