High Prevalence of RET/PTC Rearrangements in Ukrainian and Belarussian Post-Chernobyl Thyroid Papillary Carcinomas: A Strong Correlation between RET/PTC3 and the Solid-Follicular Variant1

• Published in: The journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism 1999-11, Vol.84 (11), p.4232-4238
• Main Authors: Thomas, G. A, Bunnell, H, Cook, H. A, Williams, E. D, Nerovnya, A, Cherstvoy, E. D, Tronko, N. D, Bogdanova, T. I, Chiappetta, G, Viglietto, G, Pentimalli, F, Salvatore, G, Fusco, A, Santoro, M, Vecchio, G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-972X; 1945-7197
• DOI: 10.1210/jcem.84.11.6129

A sharp increase in the incidence of pediatric thyroid papillary cancer was documented after the Chernobyl power plant explosion. An increased prevalence of rearrangements of the RET protooncogene (RET/PTC rearrangements) has been reported in Belarussian post-Chernobyl papillary carcinomas arising between 1990 and 1995. We analyzed 67 post-Chernobyl pediatric papillary carcinomas arising in 1995–1997 for RET/PTC activation: 28 were from Ukraine and 39 were from Belarus. The study, conducted by a combined immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR approach, demonstrated a high frequency (60.7% of the Ukrainian and 51.3% of the Belarussian cases) of RET/PTC activation. A strong correlation was observed between the solid-follicular subtype of papillary carcinoma and the RET/PTC3 isoform: 19 of the 24 RET/PTC-positive solid-follicular carcinomas harbored a RET/PTC3 rearrangement, whereas only 5 had a RET/PTC1 rearrangement. Taken together these results support the concept that RET/PTC activation plays a central role in the pathogenesis of thyroid papillary carcinomas in both Ukraine and Belarus after the Chernobyl accident.