Expression And Clinicopathological Significance Of The Chemokine Receptor CXCR4 And CCR7 In Thyriod Cancer

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression and clinic-pathological significance of CXCR4 and CCR7 in thyroid cancer, and offer a basis for seeking new target in thyroid cancer therapy and the prognosis judgments, also improving the accuracy of pathological diagnosis.METHODS: 55 thyroid cancer case (including 38 papillary thyroid cancer, 11 follicular thyroid cancer, 5 medullary thyroid cancer and 1 anaplastic thyroid cancer) were collected in affiliated hospital for North Sichuan Medical college during 2006 to 2009 and 30 thyroid adenoma cases were collected in the same hospital during 2009. Using immunohistochemical staining methods detected the expression of CXCR4 and CCR7 in all cases samples(including thyroid cancer and thyroid adenoma), then statistically analyzed relationships between the expression of CXCR4 and CCR7 and the degree of malignant invasion, lymph node metastasis of the thyroid cancer.RESULTS: The positive rates of CXCR4 and CCR7 in tissues of thyroid cancer and thyroid adenoma were 87.3%, 33.3% and 80.0%, 20.0%, respectively. The positive rates of CXCR4 and CCR7 in thyroid cancer were higher than in thyroid adenoma(P value<0.01, so having statistical significance). Thyroid cancer with lymph node metastasis in CCR7 positive expression rate was 95.5%, without lymph node metastasis of thyroid cancer in CCR7 positive expression rate was 69.7%, positive expression of CCR7 former higher than the latter( P value <0.05, statistical significance). In thyroid cancer, the expression of CCR7 and CXCR4 was positively correlated (P <0.01, rs = 0.491). CXCR4 and CCR7 in the clinical stageâ…¢andâ…£of thyroid cancer, positive expression was higher than in the clinical stageâ… andâ…¡of thyroid cancer positive rate, the difference was significant ( CXCR4 between the two clinical stage groups P <0.05, CCR7 group between the two clinical stage groups P <0.01). CXCR4 and CCR7 positive expression rate of patients with lymph node metastasis , independent of age and sex in thyroid cancer, P values were>0.05, the difference was not statistically significant.CONCLUSIONS: The positive rates of CXCR4 and CCR7 in thyroid cancer are high, and the positive rates of them are closely related to the degree of malignant invasion of tumor. Positive correlation was revealed between CXCR4 and CCR7 in thyroid cancer. All of these might be used as the marks to evaluate the lymph node metastasis and provide a new reliable reference about the pathological diagnosis of thyroid cancer.