title: BRAF mutations are uncommon in papillary thyroid cancer of young patients.
abstract: Mortality is low for young patients (younger than 21 years) with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), and different mutations might contribute to this. Previous studies detected ret/PTC rearrangements more frequently in PTC from children than adults, and recent reports describe a high incidence of BRAF T1796A transversion in adult PTC. However, BRAF mutations have not been adequately studied in PTC from young patients. We amplified and sequenced segments of the BRAF gene spanning the T1796A transversion site in 14 PTC from patients 10-21 years of age (mean, 17.5 +/- 3.5 years). The PTC (7 = class 1; 5 = class 2; 1 = class 3) ranged from 0.7-2.9 cm in diameter (mean, 1.4 +/- 0.75 cm). None of them (0/14) contained BRAF T1796A and none recurred (mean follow-up, 66 +/- 40 months). This incidence of BRAF T1796A is significantly less than that reported for adult PTC (270/699, 38.6%, p = 0.0015) in several series. None of our PTC (0/10) contained ras mutations, but 7/12 (58%) contained ret/PTC rearrangements. We conclude that BRAF mutations are less common in PTC from young patients, and ret/PTC rearrangements were the most common mutation found in these childhood PTC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Penko
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Livezey
authors.forename: Cydney
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fenton
authors.forename: Aneeta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Diarmuid
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Flora
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oakley
authors.forename: R Michael
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Tuttle
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Francis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / Q000235:genetics; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D048493:Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf / Q000235:genetics*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; C093573:ret-PTC fusion oncoproteins, human; C482119:BRAF protein, human; D048493:Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf