Background
Thyroid nodules are common; fine-needle aspirations commonly are read as indeterminate,
necessitating surgery to exclude carcinoma. We developed a 6-gene array-based predictor
model to diagnose benign versus malignant thyroid lesions. In this study, we verified
whether quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) using
this model reliably can differentiate benign from malignant thyroid nodules.
Methods
Molecular profiles of benign (follicular adenomas, hyperplastic nodules) and malignant
tumors (papillary thyroid carcinomas, follicular variants of papillary thyroid carcinomas)
were analyzed using qRT-PCR from our 6-gene model (kit, Hs.296031, Hs.24183, LSM7,
SYNGR2, C21orf4). The gold standard was standard pathologic criteria. A diagnosis-predictor
model was built by using the training samples and was then used to predict the class
of 10 additional samples analyzed as unknowns.
Results
Our predictor model using 47 training samples correctly predicted 9/10 unknowns. One
sample diagnosed as benign by standard histologic criteria was diagnosed as malignant
by our model (sensitivity 75%; specificity, 100%; positive predictive value, 100%;
negative predictive value, 85.7%).
Conclusions
Molecular diagnosis with our 6-gene model can differentiate between benign and malignant
thyroid tumors with high sensitivity and specificity. In combination, these genetic
markers may be a reliable test to preoperatively diagnose the malignant potential
of thyroid nodules.
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Article info
Publication history
Bethesda and Baltimore, Md
Footnotes
Presented at the 26th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, a Cancun, Mexico, April 3-5, 2005.
Identification
Copyright
© 2005 Mosby, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
