High Preponderance of BRAF V600E Mutation in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Among Filipinos: A Clinicopathologic Study

BRAF mutation in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is associated with an aggressive phenotype, with varying incidence. We evaluated the prevalence of BRAF mutations in PTC among Filipino patients and their correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics.

Clinicopathologic data were retrieved from 64 sequential patients who underwent thyroidectomy from June 2016 to December 2016. BRAF mutation testing was performed using Sanger sequencing.

Eighteen (28%) of 64 patients were diagnosed with PTC; 12 (70.59%) of 17 harbored a BRAF V600E mutation (no amplification in one patient). Demographics of patients with PTC were as follows: 13 women and five men, with median age of 46 years (range, 25 to 74 years). Fourteen patients had conventional subtype PTC; two, follicular variant; one, oncocytic variant; and one, tall-cell features. Tumor size ranged from 0.8 to 7.0 cm (median, 2.4 cm); extrathyroidal extension was present in seven (38.9%) of 18 patients, multifocality in six (33.33%) of eight, and lymph node involvement in eight (44.4%) of 18. Significant association between presence of a BRAF mutation and presence of extrathyroidal extension or lymph node involvement was not determined due to the limited sample size.

The high preponderance of BRAF mutation (70.59%) suggests some correlation with the previously reported lower 5-year survival among Filipinos. This warrants further investigation in a larger-cohort prospective study.