Histological growth pattern of and alpha-actinin-4 expression in thyroid cancer

Abstract

Aim: To assess the clinicopathological significance of the histological growth pattern (HGP) and α-actinin-4 (ACTN4) expression in thyroid cancer.

Patients and methods: We classified 83 thyroid cancer cases into infiltrative margin (IM) and pushing margin (PM) groups according to peripheral tumor margin contour and immunohistochemically determined ACTN4 expression. Correlations between clinical stage and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed.

Results: IM and high ACTN4 expression were observed in 39% and 49% of cancer cases, respectively. Higher clinical stage was significantly correlated with older age, higher T and N factor, preoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis (pre-RLNP), IM, and poor prognosis. Patients with stage IV disease had significantly poorer prognosis than those with stages I-III. On multivariate analysis, older age, pre-RLNP, and IM correlated with higher clinical stages. IM was significantly correlated with high ACTN4 expression.

Conclusion: IM, pre-RLNP, and ACTN4 expression could be novel indicators of tumor aggression and prognostic factors of thyroid cancer.

Keywords: Thyroid; alpha-actinin-4; infiltrative margin; preoperative recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis; pushing margin.