News Release

SAGE-acious prediction of thyroid carcinoma

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JCI Journals

Current protocols for thyroid tumor diagnosis require thyroid surgery to distinguish follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) from benign follicular thyroid adenoma (FTA). Given the rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer, preoperative classification of FTC versus FTA would greatly improve selection of optimal treatment strategies. In addition, it would reduce health care costs by allowing patients to pursue more aggressive treatments for FTC cases and avoid unnecessary surgery for FTA. Using SAGE to screen for differentially expressed genes in FTA and FTC samples, Janete Cerutti, Gregory Riggins, and colleagues, from the Federal University of São Paulo and Johns Hopkins University, identified a set of candidate classification markers. Further analysis with these genes by quantitative RT-PCR pinpointed four genes (DDIT3, ARG2, ITM1, and C1orf24) with statistically significant gene expression differences between FTC and FTA. They used these differentially expressed genes as predictive markers for carcinoma in a series of patient cases. RT-PCR analysis of patient samples for the markers successfully predicted tumor class with an accuracy of 83%, indicating the usefulness of this strategy for further development of preoperative diagnostic markers for FTC.

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TITLE: A preoperative diagnostic test that distinguishes benign from malignant thyroid carcinoma based on gene expression

AUTHOR CONTACTS:
Gregory J. Riggins
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Phone: (410) 550-9686
Fax: (410) 550-9689
E-mail: griggin1@jhmi.edu

Janete Cerutti
Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology
Division of Endocrinology
Federal University of Sao Paulo
Pedro de Toledo 781 - 12nd
04039-032 - Sao Paulo, SP Brazil
Phone: 55-11-5081-5233
Fax: 55-11-5084-5231
E-mail: cerutti-endo@pesquisa.epm.br

View the PDF of this article at: http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/113/8/1234


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