title: mRNA expression in papillary and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: molecular anatomy of a killing switch.
abstract: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is the most lethal form of thyroid neoplasia and represents the end stage of thyroid tumor progression. No effective treatment exists so far. ATC frequently derive from papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC), which have a good prognosis. In this study, we analyzed the mRNA expression profiles of 59 thyroid tumors (11 ATC and 48 PTC) by microarrays. ATC and PTC showed largely overlapping mRNA expression profiles with most genes regulated in all ATC being also regulated in several PTC. 43% of the probes regulated in all the PTC are similarly regulated in all ATC. Many genes modulations observed in PTC are amplified in ATC. This illustrates the fact that ATC mostly derived from PTC. A molecular signature of aggressiveness composed of 9 genes clearly separates the two tumors. Moreover, this study demonstrates gene regulations corresponding to the ATC or PTC phenotypes like inflammatory reaction, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasion, high proliferation rate, dedifferentiation, calcification and fibrosis processes, high glucose metabolism and glycolysis, lactate generation and chemoresistance. The main qualitative differences between the two tumor types bear on the much stronger EMT, dedifferentiation and glycolytic phenotypes showed by the ATC.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Aline
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hébrant
authors.forename: Geneviève
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dom
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dewaele
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Andry
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trésallet
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leteurtre
authors.forename: Jacques E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Dumont
authors.forename: Carine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maenhaut
mesh_terms: D002277:Carcinoma / Q000098:blood supply / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D065646:Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger