Sodium iodide symporter (NIS) in extrathyroidal malignancies: focus on breast and urological cancer

Abstract

BackgroundExpression and function of sodium iodide symporter (NIS) is requisite for efficient iodide transport in thyrocytes, and its presence in cancer cells allows the use of radioiodine as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in thyroid neoplasia. Discovery of NIS expression in extrathyroidal tissues, including transformed cells, has opened a novel field of research regarding NIS-expressing extrathyroidal neoplasia. Indeed, expression of NIS may be used as a biomarker for diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic purposes. Moreover, stimulation of endogenous NIS expression may permit the radioiodine treatment of extrathyroidal lesions by concentrating this radioisotope.ResultsThis review describes recent findings in NIS research in extrathyroidal malignancies, focusing on breast and urological cancer, emphasizing the most relevant developments that may have clinical impact.ConclusionsGiven the recent progress in the study of NIS regulation as molecular basis for new therapeutic approaches in extrathyroidal cancers, particular attention is given to studies regarding the relationship between NIS and clinical-pathological aspects of the tumors and the regulation of NIS expression in the experimental models.

Risk of Breast Cancer in Patients with Thyroid Cancer Receiving or Not Receiving 131I Treatment: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

“…Radioiodine therapy is the main postoperative treatment for patients with differentiated thyroid cancer. The presence of the NIS in thyroid cancer cells enables highly efficient iodine accumulation, which facilitates the use of radioactive substrates for therapeutic purposes (33). Stimulating NIS expression by elevating thyroid-stimulating hormone levels is therefore required before 131 I administration (34,35).…”

Uptake and Cytotoxicity Characterization of Radioiodine in MCF-7 and SKBR3 Breast Cancer Cell Lines

“…It serves as the driving force for iodide uptake and is maintained by Na + /K + -adenosine triphosphatase (Na + /K + -ATPase). Natrium iodide symporter activity is necessary to provide iodide accumulation inside thyroid cells [6,7,9,14]. Beside thyroid cancer cells, NIS is also expressed in above 80% of invasive breast cancer tissue samples [8].…”

Iodine Symporter Targeting with 124I/131I Theranostics

“…The simplicity and efficacy of radioiodine for the imaging and treatment of thyroid cancer patients attracted many research groups to investigate NIS expression in nonthyroidal tumor entities with the aim of treating these entities with radioiodine as well (21,22). In this context, some research groups investigated the efficacy of transfection of the NIS gene to tumor cells to make them targets for radioiodine.…”