title: Prevalence of RET/PTC rearrangements in Hashimoto's thyroiditis and papillary thyroid carcinomas.
abstract: The relationship between Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and follicular cell-derived thyroid cancer remains unclear. Recently, 2 studies reported a 95% prevalence of RET/PTC rearrangements in histologically benign tissue affected by HT, suggesting that multiple occult tumors exist in HT patients with high frequency. We tested the prevalence of RET/PTC rearrangements in 26 HT, in 6 papillary carcinomas arising in the background of HT, and in 27 papillary carcinomas not associated with HT. We detected no RET/PTC rearrangements in HT or papillary carcinomas arising in the background of HT, in contrast to a 33% prevalence among papillary carcinomas not associated with HT. However, the expression of wild-type RET was found in more than half of papillary carcinomas. These results suggest that, if the association between HT and thyroid cancer exists, its molecular basis is different from RET/PTC rearrangement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Cincinnati, 231 Albert Sabin Way, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0529, USA.
authors.forename: Marina N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Nikiforova
authors.forename: Christy M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Caudill
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biddinger
authors.forename: Yuri E
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Nikiforov
mesh_terms: D018265:Carcinoma, Papillary, Follicular / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics*; D005629:Frozen Sections; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D006801:Humans; D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / Q000032:analysis*; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics*; D013967:Thyroiditis, Autoimmune / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; C413896:RET-PCM1 protein, human; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases