Investigation of BRAF V600E Mutation in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma and Tumor-Surrounding Nontumoral Tissues

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the BRAF V600E mutation incidence and histopathologic prognostic risk factors for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) on the Turkish population. The contribution of BRAF V600E mutation in both tumor and tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues of 108 patients with PTC was assessed using mutant allele-specific amplification-polymerase chain reaction. The BRAF V600E mutation was found in 52.8% of the tumor tissues, and 7.4% of the tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues. The BRAF V600E mutation was significantly higher in the tumor tissues of the classic variant of PTC (CVPTC) cases than the follicular variant of PTC cases (p = 0.001). The presence of the BRAF V600E mutation was more frequent in women, but this gender difference was not statistically significant. BRAF V600E mutation was more frequent in patients with either one of adenomatous hyperplasia or diffuse hyperplasia in tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues (p = 0.012). There was no significant difference in the BRAF V600E mutation distribution among tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues of the two PTC variants, but it was more frequent in the CVPTC. Recent data suggest that BRAF V600E is an important marker, especially, for CVPTC. We propose that patients who had subtotal thyroid resection might have an increased risk of recurrence at the residual thyroid tissue if they have BRAF V600E mutation in their tumor-surrounding nontumoral tissues.