Detection of circulating Tg-mRNA in the follow-up of papillary and follicular thyroid cancer: how useful is it?

• Published in: British journal of cancer Vol. 91; no. 2; pp. 200 - 204
• Main Authors: VERBURG, F. A, LIPS, C. J. M, LENTJES, E. G. W. M, DE KLERK, J. M. H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basingstoke Nature Publishing Group 19.07.2004
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma, Follicular - blood; Adenocarcinoma, Follicular - pathology; Biological and medical sciences; Cancer research; Carcinoma, Papillary - blood; Carcinoma, Papillary - genetics; Carcinoma, Papillary - pathology; Endocrinopathies; Follow-Up Studies; Gene Expression Profiling; Humans; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Medical sciences; Metastasis; Minireview; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating - pathology; Non tumoral diseases. Target tissue resistance. Benign neoplasms; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - blood; RNA, Neoplasm - blood; Thyroglobulin - genetics; Thyroid cancer; Thyroid Neoplasms - blood; Thyroid Neoplasms - pathology; Thyroid. Thyroid axis (diseases); Netherlands; Endocrinopathy; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; Enzyme; gene profiling; Transferases; Thyroid diseases; Tg-mRNA; Malignant tumor; Gene expression; Gene expression profile; Nucleotidyltransferases; thyroid carcinoma; Messenger RNA; Thyroid cancer; Thyroglobulin; RT-PCR; Thyroid hormone; Detection; Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction
• ISSN: 0007-0920; 1532-1827
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6601991

To investigate the usefulness of thyroglobulin mRNA (Tg-mRNA) detection in peripheral blood in the follow-up of papillary and follicular (differentiated) thyroid cancer, a literature study was performed. Both evidence for and evidence against the usefulness of Tg-mRNA detection were found. Also, evidence for the expression of Tg-mRNA in cells other than normal or neoplastic thyroid follicular cells was found. It is concluded that currently Tg-mRNA detection is not a useful tool in the follow-up of differentiated thyroid carcinoma, but that the concept of using RT-PCR measurements during follow-up still warrants further research.