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. 1999 Jan;79(2):340–345. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6690054

Microsatellite instability in thyroid tumours and tumour-like lesions

D Lazzereschi 1,2, R Palmirotta 2,2, A Ranieri 2, L Ottini 1, M C Verì 2, A Cama 2, F Cetta 3, F Nardi 1, G Colletta 2, R Mariani-Costantini 2
PMCID: PMC2362211  PMID: 9888478

Abstract

Fifty-one thyroid tumours and tumour-like lesions were analysed for instability at ten dinucleotide microsatellite loci and at two coding mononucleotide repeats within the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) type II receptor (TβRII) and insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) receptor (IGFIIR) genes respectively. Microsatellite instability (MI) was detected in 11 out of 51 cases (21.5%), including six (11.7%) with MI at one or two loci and five (9.8%) with Ml at three or more loci (RER+ phenotype). No mutations in the TβRII and IGFIIR repeats were observed. The overall frequency of MI did not significantly vary in relation to age, gender, benign versus malignant status and tumour size. However, widespread MI was significantly more frequent in follicular adenomas and carcinomas than in papillary and Hürthle cell tumours: three out of nine tumours of follicular type (33.3%) resulted in replication error positive (RER+), versus 1 out of 29 papillary carcinomas (3.4%, P = 0.01), and zero out of eight Hürthle cell neoplasms. Regional lymph node metastases were present in five MI-negative primary cancers and resulted in MI-positive in two cases. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

Keywords: thyroid tumour: microsatellite instability, RER+ phenotype, lymph node metastasis, transforming growth factor β, type II receptor gene, insulin-like growth factor II receptor gene

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Selected References

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