Clinicopathologic study on expression of CK19 and COX-2 in papillary thyroid carcinoma / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate CK19 and COX-2 expression in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and their relationship with clinicopathologic parameters.Methods:Retrospective study of 120 consecutive patients with PTC who underwent resection from May. 2017 to Dec. 2020 was conducted. The expression of CK19 and COX-2 in 120 pieces of primary PTC tissue and 30 pieces of adjacent carcinoma tissue were detected by EliVision TM plus two-step immunohistochemical method. The relationship between the expression of CK19 and COX-2 and the clinicopathologic parameters including patient age, TI-RADS classification, TNM staging, carcinomatous infiltration, lymph node metastasis was studied. The analysis was performed using SPSS 22.0 software. The numerical data were presented as numbers and percentages, and chi-test ( χ2 test) and Pearson’s correlation were used to analyze the difference and association between two groups. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results:The positive immunostaining of CK19 and COX-2 were mainly localized in the cytoplasm. The positive rates of CK19 and COX-2 were 87.50% (105/120) and 72.50% (87/120) in cancer tissues and 10.00% (3/30) and 3.33% (1/30) in paracancerous tissues, respectively, with statistically significant differences (both P<0.05 by χ2 test) . In the groups with patients aged <45 years versus ≥45 years, the CK19 positive rates were 88.16% (67/76) and 86.36% (38/44) , and the COX-2 positive rates were 69.74% (53/76) and 77.27% (34/44) , respectively. In the groups of TI-RADS (grade 4 and 5) versus grade 6, the CK19 positive rates were 85.26% (81/95) and 96.00% (24/25) , and the COX-2 positive rates were 69.47% (66/95) and 84.00% (21/25) , respectively, with no statistically significant differences between the two groups (both P>0.05) . In the groups of TNM (stage T1 and T2) versus stage T3, the CK19 positive rates were 82.28% (65/79) and 97.56% (40/41) , and the COX-2 positive rates were 65.82% (52/79) and 85.36% (35/41) , respectively. In the groups with versus without cancer infiltration, the CK19 positive rates were 94.44% (68/72) and 77.08% (37/48) , and the COX-2 positive rates were 83.33% (60/72) and 56.25% (27/48) , respectively. In the groups with versus without lymph node metastasis, the CK19 positive rates were 95.59% (65/68) and 76.92% (40/52) , and the COX-2 positive rates were 83.82% (57/68) and 57.69% (30/52) , respectively, and the differences between the above groups were statistically significant (all P<0.05 by χ2 test) . The co-positive and co-negative expression rates of CK19 and COX-2 in 120 patients were 70.83% (85/120) and 10.83% (13/120) , respectively, with a positive correlation ( r=0.45, P<0.05 by Pearson’s correlation) . Conclusions:The positive rates of CK19 and COX-2 expressions are not related to patient’s age or TI-RADS classification, but closely related to TNM stage, cancer invasion and lymph node metastasis. The up-regulation of both CK19 and COX-2 expressions predicts higher tumor stage, more aggressive invasion and more prone to lymph node metastasis.