From September 2008 to December 2009, we performed routine analysis of the BRAFV600E mutation using thyroid cancer tissue from 424 patients who underwent thyroidectomy with cervical lymph node dissection.
The BRAFV600E mutation was found in 335 of 424 cases (79%) and was higher in classic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) (79.7%) than in the follicular variant of PTC (62.5%) (P = .019). On univariate analysis, the BRAFV600E mutation was associated with extrathyroidal extension (P = .009) and variants of PTC (P = .019), but a high-risk Metastasis, Patient Age, Completeness of resection, local Invasion and Tumor Size (MACIS) score (鈮?6) (P = .146) and lymph node metastasis (P = .628) were not significantly associated with the BRAFV600E mutation. Multivariate analysis showed that extrathyroidal extension is independently associated with the BRAFV600E mutation (relative ratio: 2.466; 95%confidence interval, 1.213-5.011; P < .013).
It is not clear that the BRAFV600E mutation is useful for prediction of poor prognosis of PTC.