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Updated: Aug 22, 2025

Establishment and Characterization of Patient-Derived Xenograft Models of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma and Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: June 2, 2023
NKD2 is correlated with the occurrence, progression and prognosis of thyroid carcinoma
Yu Gao1, Yiwei Wang1, Rende Guo2
1Department of General Surgery, Tianjin First Center Hospital, No. 94 Fukang Road, Nankai District, Tianjin, 300192, China.
Background:
Thyroid carcinoma (THCA) is the most prevalent type of tumor in endocrine system. NKD2 has been increasingly evidenced to play crucial roles in many cancers, except for THCA. We herein aimed to explore the potential role of NKD2 in THCA.
Methods:
Totally 502 THCA patient data were downloaded from TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) database. Overall survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier method. Gene set enrichment analysis was conducted to obtain significant functional pathways. Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to determine the NKD2 expression differences among various groups. The NKD2 expression was validated in cell lines and tissue microarray.
Results:
Significantly higher NKD2 expression was observed in THCA samples compared with adjacent samples, which were successfully verified in cell lines and tissue microarray. Moreover, NKD2 expression gradually elevated along with the increase of TNM Stage, and NKD2 expression was significantly higher in elder THCA patients compared with young patients. NKD2 highly expressed THCA patients had worse prognosis compared with NKD2 low-expressed patients. Furthermore, 53 pathways were significantly activated in the high NKD2 expression patients compared with low NKD2 expression THCA patients.
Conclusions:
In summary, high NKD2 expression was probably related to the progression and poor prognosis of THCA. NKD2 is a promising prognostic biomarker and pathogenic target of THCA.
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