Korean J Endocr Surg.  2007 Dec;7(4):231-236. 10.16956/kjes.2007.7.4.231.

The Significance of bcl-2 and P53 Expressions in the Papillary Thyroid Cancer

• Ji WB
• Bae JW
• Woo SU
• Son GS
• Lee JB
• Koo BW
• Chae YS

• KMID: 2375875
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.16956/kjes.2007.7.4.231

Abstract

PURPOSE
Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has a good prognosis, and it's known to be related to the apoptosis of papillary thyroid cancer. The expression of bcl-2 is thought to be associated with the inhibition of apoptosis. We evaluated the differences of bcl-2 and P53 between PTC and the control (normal tissue and benign lesion). We then analyzed the correlation between the bcl-2 and P53 expressions and the classic prognostic factors.
METHODS
Between January 2001 and December 2005, 30 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for the PTC were included in this study and immunohistochemical staining was performed on the tumors.
RESULTS
bcl-2 was expressed in 18 cases (60%) in their PTC (P<0.05). The expression of P53 was not significantly related with the clinicopathological factors, but P53 was expressed in 9 cases (30%) of PTC (P<0.05). The positive staining for was noted in 18 cases (62.1%) of the PTC tissue among the 30 patients, and as the TNM stage progresses, the expression rate of was significantly decrease for 7 stage I cases (100%), for 4 stage ll cases (80%) and for 7 stage ll cases (38.9%).
CONCLUSION
bcl-2 was expressed more as the TNM stage of PTC decreases. So bcl-2 is possibly useful as a prognostic factor for PTC, but further studies are needed for confirming its significance.

Keyword

Papillary thyroid cancer; Prognostic factor; bcl-2; P53