Serum Oncofetal Fibronectin (onfFN) mRNA in Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma (DTC): Large Overlap between Disease-Free and Metastatic Patients

Abstract

Aim: This study assessed if onfFN mRNA in the peripheral blood of patients with DTC can identify individuals with metastatic disease. Methods: Comparison of onfFN mRNA was made among 3 groups: disease-free, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis using real-time RT-PCR on 5 ml blood samples from each DTC patient. Results: Fifty-one patients were included: 30 (59%) were disease-free; 7 (13.7%) had lymph node metastasis; and 14 (27.5%) had distant metastasis. OnfFN mRNA levels in the 3 groups were significantly different (P=0.001) but with a large overlap and the expression being highest in the disease-free group. Subgroup analysis of the metastatic groups did not show any effect of age, cell type, and serum TSH, Tg, and antiTg on onfFN mRNA. The within-run and between-run root mean square coefficients of variations were <2%. Conclusion: OnfFN mRNA in patients with DTC cannot identify those with metastatic disease.

Baseline Stimulated Thyroglobulin Level as a Good Predictor of Successful Ablation after Adjuvant Radioiodine Treatment for Differentiated Thyroid Cancers

“…Possible explanation for this discordance is significantly lower baseline median STg level of 2.6 ng/ml in their study and it is an established fact that baseline STg level is a direct indicator of bulk of residual functioning tissue in low risk patients and residual tissue over neck and functioning nodal and distant metastasis in high risk patients (Giovanella et al, 2005). Researchers have failed to prove association between mRNA based marker oncofetal fibronectin (onfFN mRNA) with thyroid metastases (Sritara et al, 2012). Although our cohort had no evidence of distant metastasis (M0) and 55% had N0 status, a median baseline STg level of 16.9 ng/ml draws our attention about adequacy of total thyroidectomy in studied patients.…”