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Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognosis of the classic variant of papillary thyroid carcinomas with the BRAFV600E mutation and 131I treatment failure in those tumors due to lower functional sodium iodide symporter expression.
Methods: 109 papillary thyroid carcinomas were associated with clinicopathologic features. The BRAFV600E mutation was evaluated by direct sequencing and sodium iodide symporter protein was determined by immunohistochemistry.
Results: We found that the BRAFV600E mutation was significantly associated with the classic variant of papillary thyroid carcinomas and was independent of tumor size, the presence of extrathyroid invasion and lymph node metastasis, advanced TMN stages, and a high risk of disease recurrence. Moreover, the BRAFV600E mutation was associated with a statistically significant lower functional NIS protein expression in the classic variant of papillary thyroid carcinomas. However, those statistically significant relationships were not found in the follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinomas.
Conclusions: The BRAFV600E mutation might be associated with a more aggressive phenotype and a poor prognosis, causing less NIS-mediated 131I uptake due to a lower functional NIS protein expression in the classic variant of papillary thyroid carcinomas. Our current study appears to be valuable for predicting prognosis and is of important clinical significance for surgery and 131I treatment in patients with the classic variant of papillary thyroid carcinomas.
DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2012.111217
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