RET/PTC rearrangements arising from a small population of papillary thyroid carcinoma cells, possible candidate for passenger mutation
Nakazawa T et al. - In a study to examine the prevalence of RET/PTC and its impact on cancer progression, even though RET/PTC is a specific genetic event in carcinomas, it was shown that RET/PTCs occur in a small population of tumor cells in papillary thyroid carcinomas. The results suggested the possibility of RET/PTC as “passenger” abnormalities rather than “driver” oncogenic mutation during thyroid cancer progression. Methods- Interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was applied to touch imprint cytology of 14 papillary thyroid carcinomas along with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis.
- FISH DNA probes included RET locus, and PCR primers were designed targeting RET/PTC1 or RET/PTC3.
Results- Split FISH signals of RET were observed in 78.6% (11/14) of tumors.
- Proportions of tumor cells having split RET signals ranged from 1.8% to 19.6% in those 11 tumors.
- In RT-PCR analysis, RET/PTC was found in 28.6% (4/14) of tumors.
- Among tumors with split RET signals, 36.4% (4/11) of tumors exhibited detectable messenger RNA of RET/PTC1 or RET/PTC3.
- The remaining 7 tumors with split RET signals had no RET/PTCs amplicon.
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