The study of galectin-3, Ki-67, ubiquitin, HMGA-2 by polymerase chain reaction in real time (RT-PCR) in the puncture specimens of nodular goiter

Actuality. The differential diagnosis of follicular adenoma, follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer and follicular thyroid cancer (TC) is one of the main topics of research. For this purpose several molecular markers were approbated, however their diagnostic effectiveness differs. Aim. Quantification of candidate mRNA markers for differentiated thyroid cancer (galectin-3, Ki-67, ubiquitin, HMGA2) using polymerase chain reaction in real time (RT-PCR) of thyroid nodules pre-operative material. To evaluate the efficiency of this method for thyroid malignancy diagnostics. Materials and methods. The study included 55 patients with a clinical diagnosis of nodular / multinodular goiter. A quantitative analysis of mRNA of galectin-3, Ki-67, ubiquitin, HMGA2 was performed on material puncture by reverse transcription and RT-PCR. The Second Derivative Maximum Method was used to analyze the results. Results. The study included 46 women (83.6%) and 8 men (14.5%). The average age of the patients was 52.1 (from 23 to 82) years old. According to the results of histological examination, there were 35 (63.6%) benign tumors, 20 (36.4%) – cancer tumors (papillary carcinoma). There were no cases of follicular cancer in the histological findings. We found significant differences in the expression of mRNA of the ubiquitin gene between malignant and benign thyroid nodules. Conclusion. The method of ubiquitin gene 8.24 mRNA estimation has a sensitivity of 68.4% and a specificity of 68.6% in the well-differentiated cancer diagnostics. The estimation of mRNA of gene Ki-67, galectin-3, HMGA by RT-PCR did not show itself as a reliable method for the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules in the preoperative stage