Discriminating Gene Expression Signature of Radiation-Induced Thyroid Tumors after Either External Exposure or Internal Contamination

Genes

Catherine Ory³  Nicolas Ugolin³  Martin Schlumberger¹  Paul Hofman² 

[1] Institut Gustave Roussy, Department on Nuclear Medicine and Endocrine Oncology, Villejuif, and University Paris-Sud, F-94800, France; E-Mail:;INSERM ERI-21, Nice, F-06002, France; E-Mail:;CEA, DSV, IRCM, SREIT, Laboratoire de Cancérologie Expérimentale, BP6, Fontenay-aux-Roses, F-92265, France; E-Mails:

关键词: thyroid;    radiation-induced tumors;    transcriptomic signature;    molecular epidemiology;   

DOI  :  10.3390/genes3010019

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Both external radiation exposure and internal radionuclide contamination are well known risk factors in the development of thyroid epithelial tumors. The identification of specific molecular markers deregulated in radiation-induced thyroid tumors is important for the etiological diagnosis since neither histological features nor genetic alterations can discriminate between sporadic and radiation-induced tumors. Identification of highly discriminating markers in radiation-induced tumors is challenging as it relies on the ability to identify marker deregulation which is associated with a cellular stress that occurred many years before in the thyroid cells. The existence of such a signature is still controversial, as it was not found in several studies while a highly discriminating signature was found in both post-radiotherapy and post-Chernobyl series in other studies. Overall, published studies searching for radiation-induced thyroid tumor specificities, using transcriptomic, proteomic and comparative genomic hybridization approaches, and bearing in mind the analytical constraints required to analyze such small series of tumors, suggest that such a molecular signature could be found. In comparison with sporadic tumors, we highlight molecular similarities and specificities in tumors occurring after high-dose external radiation exposure, such as radiotherapy, and in post-Chernobyl tumors that occurred after internal ¹³¹I contamination. We discuss the relevance of signature extrapolation from series of tumors developing after high and low doses in the identification of tumors induced at very low doses of radiation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.