• Xianguang Yang, Zhonghao Liu, Xueqian Wang, Zheng Han, Cong Zhang, and Lunhua Guo.
• Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, No. 150 Haping Road, Harbin, 150080, China.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2024 Feb 1; 193 (1): 9159-15.

ObjectiveKeratin 15 (KRT15) is identified as a useful biomarker in several solid tumors, while its clinical role in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) remains unknown. Herein, this study is intended to explore the correlation of tumor KRT15 with clinical features and survival in PTC patients who received tumor resection.MethodsThis study retrospectively screened 350 PTC patients who received tumor resection and 50 thyroid benign lesions (TBL) patients. KRT15 in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded lesion specimens of all subjects was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC).ResultsKRT15 was reduced in PTC patients compared to TBL patients (P < 0.001). Furthermore, KRT15 was negatively associated with tumor size (P = 0.017), extrathyroidal invasion (P = 0.007), pathological tumor (pT) stage (P < 0.001), and postoperative radioiodine application (P = 0.008) in PTC patients. Regarding prognostic value, high KRT15 (cut-off by an IHC value of 3) is linked with prolonged accumulating disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.008) and overall survival (OS) (P = 0.008) in PTC patients. Also, the multivariate Cox regression model showed that high KRT15 (vs. low) was an independent factor for longer DFS (hazard ratio = 0.433, P = 0.049), but not for OS (P > 0.050) in PTC patients. Subgroup analyses revealed that KRT15 possessed a better prognostic value in PTC patients with age ≥ 55 years, tumor size > 4 cm, pathological node stage 1, or pathological tumor-node-metastasis stage ≤ 2 (all P < 0.050).ConclusionIncreased tumor KRT15 associates with a lower invasive degree, prolonged DFS, and OS, revealing its prognostic utility in PTC patients undergoing tumor resection.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

22 keywords...

hide…