Integrin β4 promotes invasion and anoikis resistance of papillary thyroid carcinoma and is consistently overexpressed in lymphovascular tumor thrombus.

ABSTRACT: Although the majority of papillary thyroid cancers (PTC) are indolent, a subset of PTCs behaves aggressively due to extensive invasion and distant metastasis. Integrin β4, a member of the integrin family, has been shown to enhance the progression in some malignancies; however, its role in PTC remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that β4 overexpression was associated with extrathyroid extension, lymph node metastasis, high TNM stage, and poor overall survival based on The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort. Immunohistochemistry showed that β4 expression was significantly upregulated in the tumors with infiltrating growth pattern, as well as those with positive lymphovascular invasion. Moreover, β4 was invariably overexpressed in the lymphovascular tumor thrombi, which has not been reported before

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6856897 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature