Association of V600E Mutant Allele Proportion with the Dissemination Stage of Papillary Thyroid Cancer.

The early identification of aggressive forms of cancer is of high importance in treating papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Disease dissemination is a major factor influencing patient survival. Mutation status of oncogene, V600E, is proposed to be an indicator of disease recurrence; however, its influence on PTC dissemination has not been deciphered. This study aimed to explore the association of the frequency of V600E alleles in PTC with disease dissemination. In this study, 173 PTC samples were analyzed, measuring the proportion of V600E alleles by qPCR, which was then normalized against the proportion of tumor cells. Semiquantitative analysis of BRAF V600E mutant protein was performed by immunohistochemistry. The V600E mutation was present in 60% of samples, while the normalized frequency of mutated alleles ranged from 1.55% to 92.06%. There was no significant association between the presence and/or proportion of the V600E mutation with the degree of PTC dissemination. However, the presence of the mutation was significantly linked with angioinvasion. This study's results suggest that there is a heterogeneous distribution of the mutation and the presence of oligoclonal forms of PTC. It is likely that the mutation alone does not significantly contribute to PTC aggressiveness.