Expression of Notch 1 receptor associated with tumor aggressiveness in papillary thyroid carcinoma

The aim of this study was to assess if the expression of Notch 1 receptor is associated with tumor aggressiveness in papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs).

By searching the electronic medical record system of Xin Hua Hospital, all cases of PTC patients who underwent thyroidectomy in the hospital between 2013 and 2014 were retrieved. Then, the cases of patients who had a history of any other malignancy or whose thyroid tumor specimen was not available for assay were rejected. Finally, 68 cases of PTC patients were obtained. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of these patients were studied by immunohistochemistry to learn the expression of Notch 1 receptor. Meanwhile, the clinical data of these patients including sex, age, size of the tumor, presence of node metastasis or distant metastasis, and presence of capsule invasion and tumor multicentricity were collected. Pearson's chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was used for measuring statistical differences in categorical variables. All the statistical tests were two-sided. A P-value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

A total of 19 male and 49 female PTC patients with a mean age of 44.8±13.6 years (range 18-78 years) were studied. Notch 1 receptor expression was found in 15/68 (22%) samples of PTC. The expression of Notch 1 receptor was significantly associated with tumor size (P=0.021), distant metastasis (P=0.008), capsule invasion (P=0.001), tumor multicentricity (P=0.018), and age (P=0.033). However, the expression of Notch 1 receptor was not significantly correlated with node metastasis (P=0.096) and sex (P=0.901).

The expression of Notch 1 receptor is associated with tumor aggressiveness in PTC, and may be used as a molecular marker of tumor invasiveness in PTC. PTC patients who show positive expression of Notch 1 receptor may benefit from radioiodine remnant ablation.