[Analysis of the expression of RET/PTC oncogenes in post-chernobyl papillary thyroid carcinomas of patients from...

A comparative analysis of the expression of both, RET/PTC1 and RET/PTC3 oncogenes in papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) of patients from different age groups was carried out. Those were the following groups: children (mean age - 13 years, mean latency period - 13 years), young adults (mean age - 24 years, mean latency period - 14 years), adults (mean age - 38 years, mean latency period - 22 years). The presence of RET/PTC oncogenes was detected using polymerase chain reaction. In all cases the samples of both tumor and normal thyroid tissue were studied. It was established that induction of both, RET/PTC1 and RET/PTC3 rearrangements was present only in carcinoma samples. In PTCs the percentage of RET/PTC-positive tumors with increasing the age of patients has been decreasing. It should be noted that the part of carcinomas with induction of RET/PTC1 did not change with increasing the age of patients. At the same time the frequency of RET/PTC3 rearrangements with the increasing both the latency period and age of patients, significantly decreased. In conclusion, our data can evidence for the presence of correlation between the age of patients, latency period and induction of RET/PTC3 oncogenes.