High Local and Systemic Expression of Pentraxin-3 in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Immunology
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Chronic inflammation is a known driver of cancer development.
• Aggressive thyroid cancers (TC) exhibit immune infiltration and systemic inflammation.
• Long pentraxin 3 (PTX3), an inflammatory protein, is linked to tumor progression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate plasma levels of PTX3 in non-medullary thyroid cancer (TC) patients versus benign thyroid disease.
• To investigate PTX3 tissue expression in different thyroid cancer subtypes.
• To explore the association between PTX3 and aggressive thyroid cancer characteristics.

Main Methods:

• Prospective study of 55 TC patients (papillary, follicular, oncocytic, anaplastic, poorly differentiated) and 32 controls with benign thyroid disease.
• Plasma PTX3 concentrations measured using ELISA.
• Tissue expression of PTX3 and CD68 analyzed via immunohistochemistry.

Main Results:

• PTX3 plasma levels did not differ significantly between overall TC and controls.
• Markedly higher PTX3 plasma concentrations were observed in poorly differentiated (PDTC) and anaplastic (ATC) thyroid cancer patients.
• Strong PTX3 tissue expression was found in most ATC cases, with minimal staining in benign and differentiated thyroid tissues.
• CD68 expression indicated tumor-associated macrophage infiltration in ATC.

Conclusions:

• PTX3 may be associated with aggressive thyroid cancer, especially ATC.
• Elevated PTX3 levels and tissue expression in ATC warrant further investigation.
• The cellular origin and functional role of PTX3 in aggressive TC require elucidation.