FNA needle rinses preserved in Cytolyt are acceptable specimen type for mutation testing of thyroid nodules

Haijun Zhou; Dina R Mody; Debora Smith; Maura B Lloyd; Jon Kemppainen; Jeffrey Houghton; Dennis Wylie; Anna E Szafranska-Schwarzbach; Hidehiro Takei

doi:10.1016/j.jasc.2015.01.001

FNA needle rinses preserved in Cytolyt are acceptable specimen type for mutation testing of thyroid nodules

J Am Soc Cytopathol. 2015 May-Jun;4(3):128-135. doi: 10.1016/j.jasc.2015.01.001. Epub 2015 Jan 9.

Authors

Haijun Zhou¹, Dina R Mody², Debora Smith¹, Maura B Lloyd³, Jon Kemppainen³, Jeffrey Houghton³, Dennis Wylie³, Anna E Szafranska-Schwarzbach³, Hidehiro Takei⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, 6565 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas.
² Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, 6565 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York.
³ Asuragen Clinical Services Laboratory, Austin, Texas.
⁴ Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, 6565 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York. Electronic address: hmtakei@houstonmethodist.org.

PMID: 31051693
DOI: 10.1016/j.jasc.2015.01.001

Abstract

Introduction: This study investigated the application of molecular testing to residual thyroid fine-needle aspiration material from needle rinses collected in Cytolyt.

Materials and methods: Two thyroid needle rinses from 135 patients were collected in Cytolyt during routine diagnostic workup in our institution. Molecular testing was performed to detect 14 genetic alterations in BRAF, K-, H-, N-RAS genes as well as RET/PTC1, RET/PTC3, and PAX8/PPARγ and verified by next generation sequencing and correlated with cytologic diagnoses.

Results: Molecular testing revealed a total of 17 mutations across specimens with benign nodule (n = 5; HRAS, NRAS), Hürthle cell neoplasm (n = 2; BRAF, HRAS) and Papillary thyroid carcinoma (n = 10, 9 BRAF, 1 KRAS) cytology. No RNA gene rearrangements were detected.

Conclusions: Mutations and translocations associated with thyroid cancer can be detected in thyroid fine-needle aspiration needle rinses preserved in Cytolyt specimens collected during routine patient management, which are typically discarded when a diagnosis is attained.

Keywords: Cytolyt; Molecular Testing; Thyroid fine-needle aspiration.