Presumed Pathogenic Germ Line and Somatic Variants in African American Thyroid Cancer.

African American (AA) thyroid cancer patients have worse prognoses than European Americans (EA), which has been attributed to both health care disparities and possible genetic differences. We investigated the impact of both germ line and somatic variants on clinical outcome in a cohort of AA nonmedullary thyroid cancer (NMTC) patients who had received therapeutic intervention from cancer centers. Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA from available blood/normal tissues ( = 37) and paired tumor samples ( = 32) collected from 37 and 29 AA NMTC patients, respectively.

Combined Vorinostat and Chloroquine Inhibit Sodium-Iodide Symporter Endocytosis and Enhance Radionuclide Uptake In Vivo.

Purpose: Patients with aggressive thyroid cancer are frequently failed by the central therapy of ablative radioiodide (RAI) uptake, due to reduced plasma membrane (PM) localization of the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS). We aimed to understand how NIS is endocytosed away from the PM of human thyroid cancer cells, and whether this was druggable in vivo.

Experimental Design: Informed by analysis of endocytic gene expression in patients with aggressive thyroid cancer, we used mutagenesis, NanoBiT interaction assays, cell surface biotinylation assays, RAI uptake, and NanoBRET to understand the mechanisms of NIS endocytosis in transformed cell lines and patient-derived human primary thyroid cells.

Personalized radioiodine therapy for thyroid cancer patients with known disease.

Radioactive iodine (RAI) I is a targeted therapy for patients with RAI-avid follicular cell-derived thyroid cancer. However, the responsiveness to I therapy varies among thyroid cancer patients mainly owing to differential RAI uptake and RAI radiosensitivity among patients' lesions. A personalized approach to maximize I therapeutic efficacy is proposed based on recent scientific advances and future opportunities.

Na+/I- symporter expression, function, and regulation in non-thyroidal tissues and impact on thyroid cancer therapy.

For the past 80 years, radioiodine (131I) has been used to ablate thyroid tissue not removed by surgery or to treat differentiated thyroid cancer that has metastasized to other parts of the body. However, the Na+/I- symporter (NIS), which mediates active iodide uptake into thyroid follicular cells, is also expressed in several non-thyroidal tissues. This NIS expression permits 131I accumulation and radiation damage in these non-target tissues, which accounts for the adverse effects of radioiodine therapy.