CTLA-4 gene polymorphisms associate with efficacy of postoperative radioiodine-131 for differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

AIM: To investigate the association of CTLA-4 polymorphisms with efficacy of postoperative radioiodine-131 (I-131) treatment for differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). METHODS: A total of 324 DTC patients and 350 healthy individuals were enrolled in our study. Patients received I-131 remnant ablation following surgical resection. Based on the treatment efficacy, patients were divided into the effective (n = 183) and ineffective groups (n = 141). CTLA-4 polymorphisms (+49A>G, CT60A>G and -318C>T) were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS: AG + AA genotype distribution and A allele frequency of +49A>G and CT60A>G polymorphisms were higher in the effective group than the ineffective group. CONCLUSION: +49A>G and CT60A>G polymorphisms were associated with the efficacy of postoperative I-131 treatment for DTC; and they might be bioindicators related to the prognosis of I-131 treatment.

Relationship between VEGF protein expression and lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma among Asians: a meta-analysis.

We carried out the current meta-analysis of relevant cohort studies in an attempt to investigate the relationships between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein expression and lymph node (LN) metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) among Asians. A range of electronic databases were searched, including Web of Science (1945∼2013), the Cochrane Library Database (Issue 12, 2013), MEDLINE (1966∼2013), EMBASE (1980∼2013), CINAHL (1982∼2013), and Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1982~2013) with cross-referencing without language restrictions. Meta-analysis was conducted using the STATA 12.0 software. Crude odds ratio (OR) with their 95 % confidence interval (95 %CI) was calculated. Twelve clinical cohort studies with a total of 1,045 PTC patients were included in our meta-analysis, The results of our meta-analysis revealed that patients with VEGF-positive tumors had a 3.02-fold higher risk of LN metastasis than that of patients with VEGF-negative tumors (OR=3.02, 95 %CI=2.05~4.43, P<0.001). Furthermore, subgroup analysis by country suggested that VEGF-positive expression was associated with an increased risk of LN metastasis in PTC patients among Chinese populations (OR=3.33, 95 %CI=2.30~4.83, P<0.001), but not among Korean, Turkish, and Japanese populations (all P>0.05). Our findings support the view that VEGF protein expression may be correlated with LN metastasis in PTC patients, especially among Chinese populations.