The expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma is correlated with lymph node metastasis and tumor recurrence.
BACKGROUND
Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) is a chemokine ligand that has been associated with aggressive behavior in breast and prostate cancer. The present study was performed to determine if there is a relationship between the expression of MCP-1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and factors indicative of aggressive behavior in this disease.


METHODS
The subjects of this study were 115 patients with PTC. MCP-1 expression was determined using a semiquantitative scoring system for immunohistochemical staining of MCP-1 in resected PTC samples. There were four levels of immunohistochemical staining intensity, and the population of cells that positively stained for MCP-1 was graded at four levels. The scores for the intensity of immunohistochemical staining for MCP-1 and for the percentage of cells that stained for MCP-1 were used to generate a range from 0 to 9 for scoring MCP-1 expression.


RESULTS
Positive staining for MCP-1 was observed in the cytoplasm of PTC cells and stroma cells in 79.2% of the specimens. Expression levels of MCP-1 in PTC cells were positively correlated with tumor size (p < 0.05) and lymph node involvement (p < 0.05). In addition, the expression of MCP-1 in PTC cells level was an independent predictive factor for recurrence of PTC in an analysis that included age, sex, tumor size, extrathyroidal infiltration, and lymph node involvement (p < 0.005).


CONCLUSIONS
MCP-1 expression in PTC may stimulate the aggressive behavior of this tumor or it may be a marker for aggressive behavior. Previous reports with non-thyroid tumor cells favor the hypothesis that MCP-1 expression promotes aggressive behavior in PTC.
Tanaka
Katsuhiro
K
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Kawasaki Medical School , Okayama, Japan ., 2 Centocor Inc. , Horsham, Pennsylvania, USA. tanakaka@med.kawasaki-m.ac.jp
Kurebayashi
Junichi
J
Sohda
Mai
M
Nomura
Tsunehisa
T
Prabhakar
Uma
U
Yan
Li
L
Sonoo
Hiroshi
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018932:Chemokine CCL2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
C111835:CCL2 protein, human; D018932:Chemokine CCL2