Cyclin D1 expression as a prognostic parameter in papillary carcinoma of the thyroid

Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid is the most common thyroid cancer. At the time of clinical presentation, most papillary carcinomas are still confined to the thyroid gland, and appropriate surgical treatment achieves a 95% 5-year survival rate. Certain carcinomas, however, behave in a much more aggressive fashion. Because specific therapies do not exist, for those tumors that have escaped local control, patients with disseminated disease have little or no chance of permanent cure or long-term survival. Cyclin D1, a protein that plays a critical role in the control of the cell cycle, has been shown to be overexpressed in a variety of human neoplasias and may serve as a prognostic parameter of disease progression. To explore the role played by cyclin D1 in the pathogenesis of thyroid papillary carcinoma, we have quantitated, by computerized image analysis, the immunohistochemical expression of cyclin D1 in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue from 35 conventional papillary carcinomas of the thyroid and correlated the results with established clinicopathologic parameters and available survival data.