BRAFV600E mutation does not serve as a prognostic factor in Korean patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Objectives: In recent years, BRAF(V600E) mutation has emerged as a promising prognostic marker for risk stratification of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). However, routine use of this marker has been questioned. In some parts of the world, particularly in Korea, the incidence of BRAF(V600E) mutation is too high to have true prognostic value. The relatively low number of tumors without BRAF(V600E) mutation would prejudice the efficient use of this marker in the Korean population.

Methods: The study involved 107 patients with histologically confirmed conventional PTC after surgical management for thyroid cancer from April 2010 to December 2010. BRAF(V600E) mutation analysis was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based amplification of DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded tumor specimens, and the relationship between BRAF(V600E) mutation and various prognostic factors was investigated.

Results: BRAF(V600E) mutation was found to be present in 85 (79.4%) of 107 patients with conventional PTC. Analysis of the clinical characteristics as function of the presence or absence of BRAF(V600E) mutation revealed no differences between the BRAF(V600E)-positive and BRAF(V600E)-negative patients. Moreover, BRAF(V600E) mutation was not correlated with any of the prognostic factors including age ≥45 years, male gender, tumor size ≥1cm, multifocality, extra-thyroidal extension, concurrent Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and lymph node metastasis neither in the univariate nor in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusions: BRAF(V600E) mutation does not significantly reflect tumor aggressiveness in Korean patients with conventional PTC. We consider that BRAF(V600E) mutation does not possess prognostic value in Korea, where it is prevalent, and where most of the PTC types are conventional.