Gene Expression Patterns Unveil New Insights in Papillary Thyroid Cancer.

Papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most frequent variety of all malignant endocrine tumors. It represents a heterogeneous malignancy with various clinical outcomes, emphasizing the need to identify powerful biomarkers with clinical relevance. Available gene expression data (level 3) for thyroid cancers were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), followed by bioinformatic analyses performed on the data set. Based on gene expression analysis, we were able to identify common and specific gene signatures for the three main types of papillary thyroid carcinoma (classical, follicular variant, and tall-cell). The survival rate was not significantly different among the main subtypes, but we were able to identify a biological adhesion signature with impact in patient prognostic. Taken together, the gene expression signature and particular adhesion signature, along with ITGA10 and MSLN in particular, could be used as a prognostic tool with important clinical relevance.