Basic Science | Endocrine
Eman Toraih, Manal Fawzy, Emad Kandil
ePoster Presenter: Eman Toraih Msc, MD, PhD, Tulane School of Medicine
Background: Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine neoplasm with annual 567,000 cases worldwide and an expected projection to be the fourth cancer diagnosis by 2030. Factors associated with poor prognosis and recurrence, are still limited and controversial among different guidelines. Accumulating evidence highlighted the putative roles miRNAs could exert in cancer initiation, progression, and therapeutic response.
Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of microRNA-27a (miR-27a), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha/gamma (PPARα/γ), and Retinoic X receptor alpha (RXRα) tissue expression in patients with thyroid carcinoma.
Methods: The expression levels were quantified in 174 archived thyroid specimens using Real-Time qRT-PCR. Validation in high-throughput data in public Cancer repositories and functional enrichment analysis was performed.
Results: Patients were categorized according to 4 distinct clusters. miR-27a downregulation was associated with lymph node stage, and multifocality. PPARα expression was associated with histopathological type, tumor size, and lymph node invasion. Higher risk of poor overall survival in patients with the high expression levels of PPARγ (p = 0.016) and miR-27a (p = 0.041). Patients with upregulated miR-27a and downregulated RXRα showed a higher frequency of advanced lymph node stage and relapse by cluster analysis.
Conclusion: miR-27a and PPARα/RXRα showed associations with different poor prognostic indices in thyroid cancer patients.
