Role of CD10 Marker in Differentiating Malignant Thyroid Neoplasms from Benign Thyroid Lesions (Immunohistochemical & Histopathological Study)

BACKGROUND: CD10 was initially recognised as a cell–surface antigen expressed by acute lymphoblastic leukaemias, and hence it’s early designation as Common Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Antigen (CALLA). Also, it has been proven to be reactive in various non-lymphoid cells and tissue and different types of neoplasms. AIM: To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of CD10 in malignant thyroid neoplasms and different benign lesions and to assess whether CD10 can be used as a malignancy marker in thyroid pathology or not. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 83 archived, formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue blocks of 83 cases of malignant thyroid neoplasms and different benign lesions. The samples were immunohistochemically analysed for CD10 expression. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: CD10 was expressed in 91% of the studied malignant thyroid neoplasms and 58% of benign thyroid lesions. It was expressed in 26 of 28 (92.9%) conventional papillary carcinomas, ten of 10 (100%) follicular variants of papillary carcinoma, seven of nine (77.8%) minimally invasive follicular carcinomas, two of three (66.7%) widely invasive follicular carcinomas, and seven of 7 (100%) undifferentiated carcinomas, seven of 11 (66.7%) adenomatous nodules and eight of 15 (53.3%) follicular adenomas. No statistically significant correlations were detected between CD10 expression and patients’ age, sex, lymph node metastasis, tumour stage and capsular invasion. CONCLUSION: CD10 shows strong sensitivity (91.2%) and moderate specificity (42.3%) in the diagnosis of malignancy overall and shows strong sensitivity (86.4%) and moderate specificity (42.3%) in the diagnosis of malignancy in the follicular-patterned lesions. So, CD10 might be useful in differentiating malignant from benign thyroid lesions (good positive test) and in the diagnosis of follicular variant of papillary carcinoma.