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Background@#Radiation exposure is a well-known risk factor for papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). South Korea has 24 nuclear reactors in operation; however, no molecular biological analysis has been performed on patients with PTC living near nuclear power plants. @*Methods@#We retrospectively included patients with PTC (n=512) divided into three groups according to their place of residence at the time of operation: inland areas (n=300), coastal areas far from nuclear power plants (n=134), and nuclear power plant areas (n=78). After propensity score matching (1:1:1) by age, sex, and surgical procedure, the frequency of representative driver mutations and gene expression profiles were compared (n=50 per group). Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), BRAF, thyroid differentiation, and radiation scores were calculated and compared. @*Results@#No significant difference was observed in clinicopathological characteristics, including radiation exposure history and the frequency of incidentally discovered thyroid cancer, among the three groups. BRAFV600E mutation was most frequently detected in the groups, with no difference among the three groups. Furthermore, gene expression profiles showed no statistically significant difference. EMT and BRAF scores were higher in our cohort than in cohorts from Chernobyl tissue bank and The Cancer Genome Atlas Thyroid Cancer; however, there was no difference according to the place of residence. Radiation scores were highest in the Chernobyl tissue bank but exhibited no difference according to the place of residence. @*Conclusion@#Differences in clinicopathological characteristics, frequency of representative driver mutations, and gene expression profiles were not observed according to patients’ region of residence in South Korea.
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Background and Objectives@#Although thyroid hormones affect human cancer progression, the regulatory mechanism of thyroid hormone receptors in carcinogenesis has not been elucidated. This study aimed to evaluate the expression pattern of the thyroid hormone receptor (TR) and its corepressors, and to investigate the clinical and biological functions of TR. @*Materials and Methods@#Transcriptomic and clinical data for thyroid cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Paraffin-embedded tissue sections from patients who underwent thyroidectomy were used for immunohistochemistry. BCPAP cells were treated with T3 to investigate the thyroid hormone target genes. Thyroid hormone receptor alpha (THRA) and Thyroid hormone receptor beta (THRB) were knocked down by transient siRNA transfection. @*Results@#THRA and THRB expression was lower in thyroid cancer tissues than in normal tissues. However, strong focal staining of TRβ was observed in the invasive front. High THRB expression was associated with high Silencing Mediator for Retinoid or Thyroid hormone receptor (SMRT) expression, older age, a high MACIS (distant Metastasis, patient Age, Completeness of resection, local Invasion, and tumor Size) score, more aggressive histological subtypes, more frequent extra-thyroidal extension, and advanced TNM stage. THRB expression was positively correlated with Hypoxia Inducible Factor 1 Subunit Alpha (HIF1A), L1 Cell Adhesion Molecule (L1CAM), and Lysyl Oxidase (LOX) expression. Thyroid hormone-induced HIF1A, L1CAM, and LOX upregulation was abolished by siTHRB but not siTHRA in BCPAP cells. High SMRT and high THRB groups (SMRT/THRB) presented more aggressive clinical features and showed an upregulation of HIF1A, L1CAM, and LOX, as well as of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related genes, causing changes in the tumor microenvironment. @*Conclusion@#Cooperative subtype switching from NCOR1/THRA to SMRT/THRB was thus related to aggressive clinical and molecular features, possibly related to EMT and EMT-related tumor microenvironment.
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PURPOSE: This was a cross-sectional study designed to evaluate the subjective understanding of technical terms and contents of the informed consent forms given to patients about to undergo conscious sedative upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. METHODS: A group of conveniently selected 180 patients, who were undergoing sedative endoscopy were recruited in the endoscopy procedure room in a tertiary hospital from June to July 2011. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The average number of terms exposed was 8.12 out of 10 items, the average number of terms understood well by the patients was 5.53 out of 10 items, and the average number of right answers was 3.30 out of 5 items, and the percent of correct answers ranged from 26.1% to 90.0%. The exposure to terms differed by gender, education, and previous exposure to sedative endoscopy procedures. The number of "understanding of the terms well" responses differed according to age and previous exposure to sedative endoscopy procedures, and the correct answer rate was differed by education. CONCLUSION: The understanding of the terms and knowledge about the procedures were disappointing. Therefore, sufficient explanations should be provided to the patients. While the informed consent was taken by doctors, the level of understanding should be monitored by nurses. In particular, subjects who did not have any previous experience with endoscopy procedures showed relatively lower level of understanding. We recommend that medical terms should be replaced with more common and nontechnical words in consent forms.