mRNA overexpression is associated with worse prognostic factors in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between vitamin D receptor gene () expression and prognostic factors in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). mRNA sequencing and somatic mutation data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were analyzed. mRNA expression was compared to clinicopathologic variables by linear regression. Tree-based classification was applied to find cutoff and patients were split into low and high group. Logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier analysis, differentially expressed gene (DEG) test and pathway analysis were performed to assess the differences between two groups. mRNA expression was elevated in PTC than that in normal thyroid tissue. expressions were high in classic and tall-cell variant PTC and lateral neck node metastasis was present. High group was also associated with classic and tall cell subtype, AJCC stage IV and lower recurrence-free survival. DEG test reveals that 545 genes were upregulated in high group. Thyroid cancer-related pathways were enriched in high group in pathway analyses. mRNA overexpression was correlated with worse prognostic factors such as subtypes of papillary thyroid carcinoma that are known to be worse prognosis, lateral neck node metastasis, advanced stage and recurrence-free survival.