and expression in papillary thyroid cancer.

Recent studies have revealed the significant role of and genes in the development and aggressiveness of numerous types of malignant tumor. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the expression of and in papillary thyroid cancer, and to determine the correlation between the expression of these genes and clinical characteristics. Resected thyroid tissue samples from 62 patients with papillary thyroid cancer were investigated. Thyroid tissue derived from the healthy regions of removed nodular goiters from 30 patients served as the control group. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR analysis was employed to detect relative mRNA expression levels. Primer sequences and TaqMan hydrolysis probe positions for and were determined using the Roche Universal ProbeLibrary Assay Design Center version 2.50. expression was detected in all thyroid cancer samples and in 83.3% of benign lesions. Notably, was revealed to be upregulated in thyroid cancer tissues compared with control tissues (P=0.0002). expression was positively correlated with tumor stage (P<0.0001; r=0.504), and multiple comparison analysis revealed that the highest expression of was detected in samples staged pT4 (P=0.0001). expression was detected in all thyroid cancer samples and in 96.7% of healthy thyroid tissues; notably, the expression levels were similar in both groups. In addition, there was no correlation between expression and the aggressiveness of papillary thyroid cancer. In conclusion, overexpression of the gene may be associated with the development of papillary thyroid cancer and may be a potential therapeutic target in papillary thyroid cancer.