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Background: Few studies have been conducted on the dynamic survival rates of follicular thyroid cancer (FTC). This study aimed to ascertain how the survival probability of patients with FTC changes over time. Methods: In this retrospective analysis, 10,617 patients diagnosed with FTC between 2000 and 2019 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database were included. Actuarial disease-specific survival (DSS) was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the log-rank test was used for comparisons. The annual hazard of mortality was determined using the hazard function, and the conditional survival (CS) was calculated using the life table method. Results: A total of 459 (4.3%) patients died of FTC, and the 5-year and 10-year DSS rates were 96.6 ± 0.2% and 94.6 ± 0.3%, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in the DSS rate between patients with different SEER combined summary stages (P < 0.001). The annual hazard curve for cancer mortality in the entire study cohort displayed a steep downward trend with a slight peak at 2.5 years after diagnosis, followed by a gradual decline. Patients with distant metastases exhibited a higher mortality hazard curve and more notable declining trend. CS demonstrated an upward trend across the entire study population, with the most pronounced trend in patients with distant metastases. Conclusion: Prognosis improved over time in a stage-dependent manner in patients with FTC after diagnosis. The most significant improvement was observed in the patients with distant metastases. Notably, dynamic survival estimations, such as death hazard and conditional survival analysis, provide more precise survival projections than traditional survival analysis for FTC survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are conflicting reports on the factors that increase the likelihood of patients dying from follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC). Therefore, it is critical to identify risk factors of patients with FTC. This study aimed to identify the factors that increase the risk of death of patients with FTC and help clinicians make better treatment and follow-up decisions. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed and Web of Science databases for relevant studies published before January 31, 2023. Their reference lists were also analyzed. Two reviewers extracted data and evaluated the quality of eligible studies independently. Studies on patients who had open thyroidectomy procedures with or without neck dissection were included in this review. The RevMan 5.3 software was used to analyze the data. Results: This meta-analysis included thirteen studies with a total of 2075 patients. The following variables were associated with an increased risk of death in FTC patients: age > 45 years, male, tumor diameter > 4 cm, multifocality, extrathyroidal extension (ETE), widely invasive (WI), cervical lymph node metastasis (CLNM), distant metastases (DM) and non-radical resection tumor. Lobectomy and no radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment was not associated with the death of FTC patients. Conclusion: Clinicians should pay closer attention to the following significant risk factors associated with the death of FTC patients: age (> 45), male, multifocality, tumor diameter > 4 cm, ETE, WI, non-radical resection tumor, CLNM, and DM. Individualized initial treatment and close follow-up are needed FTC patients who have these risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about death hazard and conditional survival of oncocytic cell carcinoma of the thyroid (OCC). Methods: Patients diagnosed with OCC between 2004 to 2019 were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate the actuarial disease-specific survival (DSS). The annual hazard rate of death was depicted employing the hazard function. Based on the life-table method, the conditional DSS was calculated. Results: In terms of DSS rates, there were statistically significant differences among the different stages (P < 0.01). Annual hazard curves for mortality from OCC in the entire study participants demonstrated an overall decreasing tendency with two peaks at 3 and 10 years. In patients with distant disease, the death risk curve was the steepest and decreased quickly and evidently. Conditional DSS tended to increase over time in the entire study population. Patients with distant disease showed more significant alterations than those patients with local or regional disease. Conclusions: Prognosis improved over time in patients with OCC. The largest increase in conditional DSS was observed in patients with distant disease. Conditional survival may provide more relevant prognostic information than conventional survival estimates and allow personalized follow-up and counseling. Key points: Questions: How do the risk of death and survival probability change over time in patients with oncocytic cell carcinoma of the thyroid (OCC)? Findings: In this retrospective study of 3401 patients, prognosis improves over time in patients with OCC of different Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) stages. The greatest improvement was observed in patients with distant disease. Meaning: For OCC survivors, death hazard and conditional survival analysis provide more accurate dynamic estimates of survival than conventional survival analysis for patients who have survived a period of time after diagnosis. With such information, clinicians can provide an accurate risk assessment of survival and formulate individual treatment and surveillance recommendations for patients diagnosed with OCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The long non-coding RNA GAS8 antisense RNA 1 (lncRNA GAS8-AS1) is a tumor suppressor in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), but the mechanisms underlying how GAS8-AS1 regulates PTC biology remain unclear. Here, we evaluated the molecular function of GAS8-AS1 in regulating autophagy in PTC cell lines.Methods: GAS8-AS1 was overexpressed and knocked down in PTC cell lines by transfecting with expression plasmids or short interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Cell proliferation was evaluated using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). qRT-PCR and western blot were used to determine changes in expression of autophagy-related genes. Autophagy was evaluated by immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy.Results: Relative GAS8-AS1 expression was lower in the PTC cell lines, TPC1 and BCPAP, compared to a normal thyroid cell line. Overexpression of GAS8-AS1 inhibited proliferation, significantly increased the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I, and reduced p62 expression, whereas GAS8-AS1 knockdown demonstrated opposite effects. In GAS8-AS1 overexpressing cell lines, LC3 immunofluorescence staining demonstrated increased punctate aggregates of LC3 staining, and transmission electron microscopy revealed increased numbers of autophagosomes. Autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG5) was markedly upregulated by GAS8-AS1 overexpression and downregulated by GAS8-AS1 knockdown. Finally, silencing of ATG5 attenuated autophagy activation and rescued the inhibition of cell proliferation caused by GAS8-AS1.Conclusions: In PTC cell lines, GAS8-AS1 inhibited proliferation, activated autophagy, and increased ATG5 expression. Downregulation of ATG5 reversed GAS8-AS1-mediated activation of autophagy leading to cell death, revealing a novel mechanism of the GAS8-AS1-ATG5 axis in PTC cell lines. This provided a new experimental basis to explore the effects of lncRNA on autophagy in the treatment of thyroid cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current evidence suggests that the human genome produces a large number of non-coding RNAs, including microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Generally, lncRNAs are defined as RNA transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides that are not transcribed into proteins. In recent years, lncRNAs have been reported to play oncogenic roles in tumourigenesis. However, minimal research has been performed on the expression and clinicopathological significance of lncRNAs in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). In the present study, we investigated not only the expression and clinicopathological significance of a novel lncRNA, NR_036575.1, in PTC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues but also its potential function in TPC1 cells. The expression levels of the lncRNA NR_036575.1 in 83 pairs of PTC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues were detected via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The relationships between the expression levels and clinicopathological characteristics of the lncRNA NR_036575.1 were analysed. In addition, we established two receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to assess the diagnostic value of NR_036575.1 expression. Cell Counting Kit-8 and transwell assays were used to assess cell proliferation and migration, respectively. The expression levels of the lncRNA NR_036575.1 were significantly higher in PTC tissues than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues. High NR_036575.1 expression was associated with extrathyroidal extension (ETE) ( P = 0.011) and tumour size ( P = 0.006). The ROC curves indicated that NR_036575.1 could potentially serve as a biomarker for identifying PTC and related, non-cancerous diseases (sensitivity, 80.7 %; specificity, 88 %), as well as for differentiating between PTC with or without ETE (sensitivity, 57.8 %; specificity, 86.7 %). NR_036575.1 knock-down significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration of TPC1 cells. Our findings are the first to describe lncRNA NR_036575.1 overexpression in PTC. NR_036575.1 expression was associated with both ETE and tumour size. In addition, NR_036575.1 modulation could regulate TPC1 cell proliferation and migration. The results of our study suggest that NR_036575.1 could be applied as a potential biomarker and a novel therapeutic target for PTC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNA-663 (miR-663) has been detected in a large variety of tumor types; however, it still holds both tumor suppressive and oncogenic roles in different tumor types. The miRNA-CHIP microarray assay revealed downregulation of miR-663 in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC); however, the effect of miR-663 on PTC cell invasion and migration remains unknown. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the potential involvement of miR-663 in PTC. In this study, miR-663 expression level was measured via quantitative real-time PCR in 91 pairs of human PTC and adjacent normal tissues and in two human PTC cell lines. The effect of miR-663 on PTC cell invasion and migration were studied by transwell and wound healing assays. In addition, the miR-663 target was searched and the underlying mechanism was clarified by reporter assay and rescue experiment. The current study confirmed that miR-663 expression was inhibited in PTC tissue samples and PTC cell lines. There were statistically significant differences in expression of miR-663 with regard to age and tumor size. Upregulation of miR-663 suppressed PTC cell invasion and migration. Further study showed that transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1) was the direct target of miR-663 and mediated the effect of miR-663 on PTC development. By targeting TGFβ1, miR-663 efficiently regulates the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The data indicated that miR-663 may suppress tumor invasion and migration by targeting TGFβ1 and regulate EMT progress of PTC cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is a kind of RNA that is longer than 200 nucleotides with limited or no protein-coding potential. Studies have proved that lncRNAs play important regulatory roles in gene expression and contribute to oncogenesis and cancer metastasis. However, the expression level of lncRNAs and their clinicopathologic significance in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) have not been well studied. In this study, we investigated the expression level of a novel lncRNA NONHSAT037832 in PTC and paired noncancerous thyroid tissues as well as some cell lines by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The association between the expression level of NONHSAT037832 and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with PTC was further analyzed. Three receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) were established to evaluate the diagnostic value of NONHSAT037832. The results suggested that the expression level of NONHSAT037832 was significantly decreased in PTC compared with paired noncancerous tissues ( P < 0.01). And, NONHSAT037832 was also significantly downregulated in two PTC cell lines (K1 and IHH-4) compared to normal thyroid follicular epithelial cell line Nthy-ori 3-1 ( P < 0.01). Downregulated NONHSAT037832 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis ( P = 0.015) and tumor size ( P = 0.032). The ROCs revealed that NONHSAT037832 had a high diagnostic value for differentiating between PTC and noncancerous diseases as well as identifying PTC with lymph node metastasis and larger tumors (≥3 cm). The area under curve was up to 0.897 (95%CI = 0.852-0.942, P = 0.000), 0.641 (95%CI = 0.519-0.762, P = 0.033), and 0.702 (95%CI = 0.567-0.827, P = 0.008), respectively. This study indicated that NONHSAT037832 might serve as a potential biomarker of PTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]