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Published on: August 23, 2019
RET oncogene expression of papillary thyroid carcinoma in Korea
Ki-Wook Chung1, Myung Chul Chang, Dong-Young Noh
1Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-744, South Korea.
Purpose:
To identify the prevalence of RET/PTC oncogene expression in Korea, and to investigate the correlation between RET/PTC oncogene expression and the known prognostic factors of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) in 22 patients.
Methods:
We performed reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for RET/PTC1, RET/PTC2, and RET/PTC3 rearrangements and immunohistochemical staining for the RET gene. Patient information was obtained from medical records. The chi(2) test, independent sample t-test, and logistic regression were used for statistical analysis.
Results:
The mean age of the patients was 44.4 years. RET/PTC rearrangement by RT-PCR was positive in only 2 (9.1%) of the 22 patients, and RET/PTC1 and RET/PTC3 were positive in 1 patient each (4.5%). Immunohistochemical staining revealed positive RET oncogene expression in 8 patients (36.3%). RET oncogene expression was marginally related to recurrence ( P = 0.05), but without significance by multivariate analysis.
Conclusion:
It is possible that a rare form of rearrangement exists in Korean papillary thyroid carcinoma, but this study failed to prove that RET oncogene expression is associated with alleged prognostic factors.
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