J Korean Surg Soc.  2010 May;78(5):277-282. 10.4174/jkss.2010.78.5.277.

hTERT Expression in Thyroid Nodule

• Kim TW
• An CH
• Kim KH
• Park WC
• Bae JS
• Kim JS

• KMID: 2211953
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4174/jkss.2010.78.5.277

Abstract

PURPOSE
Telomerase is expressed by most malignancies including thyroid cancer. In this study, to evaluate the telomerase activity, we determine the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in benign and malignant thyroid tumors.
METHODS
We examined the clinical data such as age, sex, and recurrence status of 100 patients that underwent thyroidectomy. Also, we reviewed the pathological data of the tissues (tumor size, lymph nodes, capsular invasion, perivascular invasion, perilymphatic invasion etc.). We checked hTERT expression by Allred scoring system using immunohistochemical staining.
RESULTS
21 patients had benign thyroid nodules and 79 patients had malignant nodules. The average size of benign tumors and malignant tumors were 3.1+/-1.1 cm and 2.1+/-1.7 cm, respectively. The hTERT expression was higher in malignant tumors (82.3%) than in benign tumors (9.5%) and that difference was statistically significant. In metastatic lymph nodes status of thyroid cancers, 45 of 65 patients (69.2%) had lymphatic metastases in hTERT positive group, which is much higher than hTERT negative group (P=0.001).
CONCLUSION
In our study, hTERT expression may be used as a prognostic biologic marker in thyroid cancer and also in the diagnosis of malignancy.

Keyword

Telomerase; Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT); Thyroid cancer

MeSH Terms

Biomarkers
Humans
Lymph Nodes
Lymphatic Metastasis
Recurrence
Telomerase
Thyroid Gland
Thyroid Neoplasms
Thyroid Nodule
Thyroidectomy
Telomerase

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Positive (A) and Negative (B) results of immunochemical stainings of hTERT in thyroid cancer tissues (×200).

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