Association of BRAFV600E mutation with clinicopathological features of papillary thyroid carcinoma: a study on a Chinese population.

BACKGROUND The new finding of the heterogeneous distribution of BRAF(V600E) mutation in primary papillary thyroid carcinoma suggested the percentage of BRAF(V600E) alleles should be taken into consideration when evaluating its association with clinicopathological features of papillary thyroid carcinoma. The aim of this study was to detect both the presence and the percentage of BRAF(V600E) alleles in fine-needle aspiration biopsy samples and to assess its association with clinicopathological characteristics of papillary thyroid carcinoma in a Chinese population. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fine needle aspiration samples were collected in a total of 182 patients (132 conventional papillary thyroid carcinomas and 50 goiters). The associations of the presence and percentage of BRAF(V600E) alleles genotyped by pyrosequencing with clinicopathological characteristics were evaluated in papillary thyroid carcinomas. RESULTS 80 (60.61%) of papillary thyroid carcinomas exhibited BRAF(V600E) mutation in a range of 7.7% to 46.3% of the total BRAF alleles. The presence of BRAF(V600E) mutation was significantly associated with extrathyroidal invasion. There was no significant difference between the presence of BRAF(V600E) mutation and other clinicopathological features. It was not found that the significant relationship between percentage of BRAF(V600E) alleles and clinicopathological characteristics. CONCLUSION We concluded that the presence of BRAF(V600E) could be preoperatively predictive of extrathyroidal invasion in a Chinese population.