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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

An Orthotopic Mouse Model of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma
Published on: April 17, 2013
Genomic and transcriptomic characterization of the mitochondrial-rich oncocytic phenotype on a thyroid carcinoma
Bruno Cavadas1, Joana B Pereira1, Marcelo Correia1
1Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal; Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto (IPATIMUP), Porto, Portugal.
Abstract:
We conducted the first systematic omics study of the oncocytic phenotype in 488 papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Oncocytic phenotype is secondary to PTC, being unrelated to several pathologic scores. The nuclear genome had low impact on this phenotype (except in specific copy number variation), which was mostly driven by the significant accumulation of mitochondrial DNA non-synonymous and frameshift mutations at high heteroplasmy levels. Energy and mitochondrial-related pathways were significantly enriched in oncocytic tumors that also displayed increased levels of expression for genes involved in autophagy and fusion of mitochondria. Our in vitro tests confirmed that autophagy is increased and functional while mitophagy is decreased in these tumors.
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