Role of CD10 Marker in Differentiating Malignant Thyroid Neoplasms from Benign Thyroid Lesions (Immunohistochemical &...

CD10 was initially recognised as a cell-surface antigen expressed by acute lymphoblastic leukaemias, and hence it's early designation as Common Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Antigen (CALLA). Also, it has been proven to be reactive in various non-lymphoid cells and tissue and different types of neoplasms.

To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of CD10 in malignant thyroid neoplasms and different benign lesions and to assess whether CD10 can be used as a malignancy marker in thyroid pathology or not.

A total of 83 archived, formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue blocks of 83 cases of malignant thyroid neoplasms and different benign lesions. The samples were immunohistochemically analysed for CD10 expression. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

CD10 was expressed in 91% of the studied malignant thyroid neoplasms and 58% of benign thyroid lesions. It was expressed in 26 of 28 (92.9%) conventional papillary carcinomas, ten of 10 (100%) follicular variants of papillary carcinoma, seven of nine (77.8%) minimally invasive follicular carcinomas, two of three (66.7%) widely invasive follicular carcinomas, and seven of 7 (100%) undifferentiated carcinomas, seven of 11 (66.7%) adenomatous nodules and eight of 15 (53.3%) follicular adenomas. No statistically significant correlations were detected between CD10 expression and patients' age, sex, lymph node metastasis, tumour stage and capsular invasion.

CD10 shows strong sensitivity (91.2%) and moderate specificity (42.3%) in the diagnosis of malignancy overall and shows strong sensitivity (86.4%) and moderate specificity (42.3%) in the diagnosis of malignancy in the follicular-patterned lesions. So, CD10 might be useful in differentiating malignant from benign thyroid lesions (good positive test) and in the diagnosis of follicular variant of papillary carcinoma.