Differences in Gene Expression Profile of Primary Tumors in Metastatic and Non-Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma—Do They Exist?

Abstract

<jats:p>Molecular mechanisms of distant metastases (M1) in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) are poorly understood. We attempted to analyze the gene expression profile in PTC primary tumors to seek the genes associated with M1 status and characterize their molecular function. One hundred and twenty-three patients, including 36 M1 cases, were subjected to transcriptome oligonucleotide microarray analyses: (set A—U133, set B—HG 1.0 ST) at transcript and gene group level (limma, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA)). An additional independent set of 63 PTCs, including 9 M1 cases, was used to validate results by qPCR. The analysis on dataset A detected eleven transcripts showing significant differences in expression between metastatic and non-metastatic PTC. These genes were validated on microarray dataset B. The differential expression was positively confirmed for only two genes: IGFBP3, (most significant) and ECM1. However, when analyzed on an independent dataset by qPCR, the IGFBP3 gene showed no differences in expression. Gene group analysis showed differences mainly among immune-related transcripts, indicating the potential influence of tumor immune infiltration or signal within the primary tumor. The differences in gene expression profile between metastatic and non-metastatic PTC, if they exist, are subtle and potentially detectable only in large datasets.</jats:p>

Cell and Molecular Biology of Thyroid Disorders 2.0

“…In this Special Issue, a total of 12 excellent papers consisting of eight original articles [ 6 , 7 , 10 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], and four reviews [ 19 , 27 , 28 , 29 ] were published, as detailed in Table 1 .…”

“…This collection includes nine manuscripts focusing on TC [ 19 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ], two research articles on the topic of Graves’ disease [ 6 , 7 ], and one article with focus on central congenital hypothyroidism [ 10 ]. The TC studies published in this issue focused on prognostic, predictive markers or biomarkers [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 27 ], oncogenes [ 22 ] of TC, and anti-cancer drugs [ 19 , 26 , 28 , 29 ].…”

“…This Special Issue covers an ex vivo study with tumour specimen of patients [ 23 ], investigating metastatic and non-metastatic samples from PTC. The transcriptome oligonucleotide microarray technology was used to detect differences between M0 and M1 PTC.…”

“…Another study focused on the mechanisms of distant metastases (M1) in PTC [ 23 ]. It is unclear whether there are differences in gene expression profile between metastatic and non-metastatic PTC.…”

“…Further investigations are necessary with hundreds of tumours. The authors detected differences in immune-related transcripts, indicating a possible role of tumour immune infiltration for metastasis [ 23 ].…”