Table 3.
Eph-A4 expression in malignant and benign thyroid lesions.
| Thyroid lesions | N | Eph-A4 expression | IHC scorea (mean±SD) | p-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Negative/Weak | Moderate | Strong | ||||
| Malignant | 0.546b | |||||
| Papillary carcinoma | 47 | 14 (29.8) | 8 (17) | 25 (53.2) | 3.77±2.73 | |
| Follicular carcinoma | 5 | 3 (60) | 1 (20) | 1 (20) | 2.00±2.83 | |
| Medullary carcinoma | 5 | 4 (80) | 0 (0) | 1 (20) | 1.40±3.13 | |
| Anaplastic carcinoma | 2 | 1 (50) | 0 (0) | 1 (50) | 3.50±4.95 | |
| Benign | ||||||
| Hyperplastic nodules | 61 | 22 (36.1) | 21 (34.5) | 18 (29.5) | 2.84±2.33 | 0.006c |
| Hashimoto’s thyroiditis | 11 | 4 (36.4) | 1 (9.1) | 6 (54.6) | 3.64±3.11 | |
Numbers in parentheses represent percentages.
a
Immunohistochemical score.
b
Pearson’s R chi-square; no statistical significance between malignant and benign lesions.
c
Mann-Whitney test; statistical significance between papillary carcinoma and hyperplastic nodules.