The relationship between thyroid cancer and e-cadherin/ß-cathenin and the quantity of e-cadherin/ß-cathenin and metastasis

Aim: Thyroid cancers are nearly %1 of all cancer cases although it?s the most common cancer of the endocrine system. In our study 100 cases of thyroid cancer were reviewed. Among these cases, there were 33 papillary carcinoma, 42 follicular variant of papillary carcinoma, 20 follicular carcinoma and 5 low differentiated carcinoma patients. Follicular carcinoma patients were divided into minimally invasive and widely invasive groups. 12 of these cases were minimally invasive, while 8 cases were widely invasive. All of the cases were analysed with PCR and immunohistochemical methods. ?-cathenin mutation was studied with PCR.Material and Method: All the preparates are stained with E-cadherin and ? -cathenin for immunohistochemical studies. When low differentiated carcinomas are observed, well differentiated areas of same preparates were intensely stained but poor differentiated areas were unstained.In % 44 of all cases, ? -cathenin (CTNNB1) gene mutation was detected. There was no relationship between the type of cancer and the mutation found in PCR. In 4 (% 40.0) patients with modified neck dissection and in 40 (% 44.4) patients with neck undissection, ? -cathenin (CTNNB1) gene mutation was detected positive. There was no significant difference between these two groups.Findings: A decrease in the expression of E-cadherine was observed when we go through well differentiated tumors to poorly differentiated tumors. Imbalance between E-cadherin and ? -cathenin has an important role in the transformation from well differentiated carcinomas to poorly differentiated carcinomas and also promote regional lymph nodes metastasis (p=0,0001).Conclusion: As a conclusion anticancer agents that specifically target E-cadherin/ ? -catenin currently are under development and should be investigated as therapy for poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas because they may offer hope for the treatment of individuals diagnosed with this fatal thyroid malignancy.Key Words: E-cadherin, ß-cadhenin, Thyroid Carcinoma, CTNNB1 gene mutation.