Objective
To study the association between radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma, sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) expression, and the
BRAF
V600E
mutation.
Methods
A study was conducted on 30 radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma patients and 30 radioiodine-avid papillary thyroid carcinoma patients. The expressions of sodium/iodide symporter and
BRAF
V600E
mutated protein were determined by immunohistochemistry using formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue.
Results
The mutated
BRAF
V600E
protein was identified in 26 radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma subjects (86.7%) and 22 radioiodine-avid papillary thyroid carcinoma subjects (73.3%), with no significant difference between the 2 groups (
P
= 0.3). Sodium/iodide symporter expression was detected in 4 of 30 cases (13.3%) from the radioiodine-avid papillary thyroid carcinoma group but was negative for all radioiodine refractory cases. There was no association between sodium/iodide symporter expression and radioiodine refractory papillary thyroid carcinoma (
P
= 0.11). Cases with positive NIS expression were likely negative for
BRAF
V600E
mutation (3/4;
P
= 0.02).
Conclusion
Papillary thyroid carcinomas with
BRAF
V600E
mutation were more likely to be negative for NIS expression.
BRAF
V600E
mutation and NIS expressions cannot be used to predict radioiodine sensitivity.
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