The Association Between Radioiodine Refractory in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma, Sodium/Iodide Symporter Expression, and BRAF V600E Mutation
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Updated: Oct 29, 2025

An Orthotopic Mouse Model of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma
Published on: April 17, 2013
Tauangtham Anekpuritanang1, Maythad Uataya2, Apichaya Claimon3
1Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, 10700, Thailand.
Objective:
To study the association between radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma, sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) expression, and the BRAF V600E mutation.
Methods:
A study was conducted on 30 radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma patients and 30 radioiodine-avid papillary thyroid carcinoma patients. The expressions of sodium/iodide symporter and BRAF V600E mutated protein were determined by immunohistochemistry using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue.
Results:
The mutated BRAF V600E protein was identified in 26 radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma subjects (86.7%) and 22 radioiodine-avid papillary thyroid carcinoma subjects (73.3%), with no significant difference between the 2 groups (P = 0.3). Sodium/iodide symporter expression was detected in 4 of 30 cases (13.3%) from the radioiodine-avid papillary thyroid carcinoma group but was negative for all radioiodine refractory cases. There was no association between sodium/iodide symporter expression and radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma (P = 0.11). Cases with positive NIS expression were likely negative for BRAF V600E mutation (3/4; P = 0.02).
Conclusion:
Papillary thyroid carcinomas with BRAF V600E mutation were more likely to be negative for NIS expression. BRAF V600E mutation and NIS expressions cannot be used to predict radioiodine sensitivity.
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