Correlation analysis of ultrasound features and BRAF V600E gene mutation in thyroid cancer / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the relationship between BRAF V600E gene mutation and ultrasonography manifestations as well as the lesion invasiveness in thyroid cancer.Methods:A total of 153 patients pathologically diagnosed as thyroid cancer after surgery who underwent thyroidectomy in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital from January 2018 to October 2019 were selected, including 146 cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Ultrasonography was performed before operation. Paraffin embedded tissue after operation was used to detect BRAF V600E gene mutation. According to the results of BRAF V600E gene detection, patients were divided into mutation group and non-mutation group. The ultrasonic characteristics of the two groups were compared. The relationship of BRAF V600E gene mutation with ultrasonic characteristics, clinicopathological characteristics as well as cervical lymph node metastasis was analyzed by using logistic regression.Results:There were 130 cases (85.0%) of BRAF V600E gene mutation and 23 cases of BRAF V600E gene non-mutation in 153 patients with thyroid cancer. Among 146 cases with papillary thyroid carcinoma, there were 128 cases (87.7%) of BRAF V600E gene mutation. The percentage of patients with the unclear boundary between thyroid lesions and capsule in BRAF V600E gene mutation group was higher than that of patients in non-mutation group, and the difference was statistically significant [46.9% (60/128) vs. 11.1% (2/18), χ 2 = 8.261, P = 0.004]. There were no significant differences in age, gender, nodule long diameter, aspect ratio, nodal location, internal calcification, internal echo, echo uniformity, cystic solid, nodal shape, boundary clarity, blood flow signal, the number of tumor site, lymph node metastasis and nodular goiter between BRAF gene mutation group and non-mutation group (all P > 0.05). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that only the boundary clarity between thyroid lesions and capsule was an independent influencing factor of BRAF V600E gene mutation ( OR = 14.400, 95% CI 1.847-112.246, P = 0.011), tumor lesion size was an independent influencing factor of cervical lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma ( OR = 2.714, 95% CI 1.335-5.517, P = 0.006). Conclusions:In papillary thyroid carcinoma, BRAF V600E gene mutation is related with lesion and the unclear boundary between the tumor and capsule, but not related with lymph node metastasis. The size of the tumor lesion is associated with lymph node metastasis.