ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the expression level and correlation of β-catenin and neural cell adhesion molecule(NCAM) in thyroid carcinoma.Methods In this study,the expression levels of NCAM and β-catenin in thyroid carcinoma tissues (n=62) and thyroid adenoma tissues (n=44) collected from patients treated in Wenzhou Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang Chinese Medical University from Dec.2012 to Dec.2017 were detected by immunohistochemical staining,then its correlation with clinicopathological features was analyzed.Results The positive expression rate of NCAM in thyroid carcinoma tissues was significantly lower than that in thyroid adenoma tissues (12.90％ vs 90.91％,t=63.203,P=0.000).The positive expression rate of β-catenin protein in thyroid carcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in thyroid adenoma tissues (82.26％ vs 6.82％,t=58.608,P=0.000).NCAM and β-catenin were negatively correlated in thyroid carcinoma tissues (r=-0.220,P=0.024).The difference of NCAM expression level was not significant among thyroid carcinoma patients with different gender,age,tumor diameter,histological type or pathological stage (t=1.960,0.054,3.335,0.807,0.218;P=0.162,0.816,0.069,0.848,0.641).The expression of NCAM in cancer tissues was significantly different in patients with different lymph node metastasis (t=8.373,P=0.004).The expression of β-catenin in cancer tissues was not significant in thyroid carcinoma patients with different gender,histological type,tumor diameter,age,lymph node metastasis or pathological stage (t=0.258,2.307,0.424,0.741,2.570,0.126;P=0.612,0.511,0.515,0.389,0.109,0.722).Conclusions In thyroid carcinoma patients,NCAM is down-regulated,and β-catenin is highly expressed.Moreover,the two indicators are negatively correlated.Additionally,NCAM expression is correlated with lymph node metastasis in thyroid carcinoma patients.