RET Fusion-Positive Papillary Thyroid Cancers are Associated with a More Aggressive Phenotype

It is unclear if different genetic drivers in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) confer different phenotypic tumor behavior leading to more aggressive disease. We hypothesized that RET-driven cancers are more aggressive.

We reviewed records of consecutive patients treated for newly diagnosed PTC at this single institution from 2015 to 2016. Tumor samples from these patients were genotyped to identify RET-translocated, BRAF^V600E mutant, and HRAS, KRAS, and NRAS mutant tumors. Patient demographic, clinicopathologic, and outcomes data were compared to identify genotype-specific patterns of disease.

Of the 327 patients who underwent initial surgery for PTC during the study period, 192 (58.7%) had BRAF^V600E mutant tumors (BRAF), 14 (4.3%) had RET-rearranged tumors (RET), 46 (14.1%) had RAS mutant tumors (RAS), and 75 (22.9%) had BRAF, RET, and RAS wildtype tumors. RET-driven tumors were more likely to have extrathyroidal extension (50.0% versus 27.0% for BRAF and 2.2% for RAS, P < 0.001), multifocal disease (85.7% versus 60.3%, and 44.4%, respectively, P = 0.017), and distant metastases (14.3% versus 1.1%, and 0%, respectively, P = 0.019). RET and BRAF patients also had worse disease-free survival than RAS patients (Kaplan-Meier log rank, P = 0.027).

Patients with RET-driven PTCs had higher rates of extrathyroidal extension, multifocal disease, and distant metastases than patients whose tumors had BRAF^V600E or RAS mutations. Patients with RET-rearranged tumors had similar disease-free survival to patients with BRAF^V600E mutant tumors. RET rearrangement may confer an aggressive phenotype in PTC.