title: Papillary thyroid carcinoma in pregnancy: a variant of the disease?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are conflicting reports in the literature regarding the prognostic influence of pregnancy on patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), and there is no literature on specific microRNA (miRNA) profiles of PTC in the context of pregnancy. We aim to examine clinically if pregnancy is an adverse factor in PTC, and if pregnancy-associated PTC are biologically different from those in nonpregnant women in terms of their miRNA profiles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Women diagnosed with PTC during or soon after pregnancy were recruited into the pregnancy group. Age-matched nonpregnant females were recruited into the nonpregnancy group. MiRNA microarray was performed on PTC tissue of pregnant patients (10), nonpregnant patients (10), and normal thyroids (5). There were 6 differentially expressed miRNAs from the microarray comparisons validated with RT-PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 24 patients in the clinical pregnancy group and 30 in the nonpregnancy group. Tumors from the pregnancy group were significantly larger and showed more regional lymph node metastases. The microarray data showed a total of 27 miRNAs that were potential differentiators of PTC tissue samples from pregnant and nonpregnant patients. Of the 6 selected for validation, no significant difference in expression was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our clinical data suggests that PTC during pregnancy may be more locoregionally aggressive. However, no difference in survival or recurrence is demonstrated. The miRNA profiles of the pregnancy-associated PTC have not been shown to be different to the nonpregnancy counterparts. This likely suggests that the differences seen clinically are related to patient factors rather than the disease itself.
authors.affiliation: Endocrine Surgical Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia. lee.JamesC@gmail.com
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jing Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Roderick J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Clifton-Bligh
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: Justin S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Gundara
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ip
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Sywak
authors.forename: Leigh W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Delbridge
authors.forename: Bruce G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Stanley B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Sidhu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000523:psychology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011252:Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011379:Prognosis; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015996:Survival Rate; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm