title: Chromatin changes in papillary thyroid carcinomas may predict patient outcome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  New insights in prognostic predictions are urgently needed for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). The present study aimed to investigate whether computerized analysis of chromatin texture allows the identification of PTC patients with a poor prognosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  We randomnly selected paraffin-embedded blocks from surgical specimens of 103 classic cases of PTC. During follow-up, 68 of the patients were classified as free of disease, whereas 35 presented with recurrences. Characteristics of chromatin were obtained from digitized images of at least 100 randomly selected tumor nuclei per patient. An independent series of 30 goiters was used to validate our observations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Stage, age and distant metastases were found to serve as independent prognostic factors for survival. In addition, multivariate Cox regression confirmed variable cluster prominence as an independent prognostic factor. By comparing malignant and benign nodules, we found that the PTC lesions presented with higher nuclear perimeters, nuclear areas, Minkowski fractal dimensions, optical densities and nuclear longest chords.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From our results we conclude that, in conjunction with clinical and histopathological data, morphometric data may provide relevant prognostic information in PTC patients.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas (FCM- Unicamp), Rua Tessália Vieira de Camargo 126 - Barão Geraldo, 13083-970, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Cunha
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Matos
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Adam
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vassallo
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006042:Goiter / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin