SYT12 gene tends to predict greater progression of disease in patients with papillary thyroid cancer

What is it about?

Survival and disease recurrence after diagnosis of papillary thyroid cancer is imperfectly predicted by commonly used staging systems based mostly on histopathologic characteristics of the tumor such as size and location of metastases. Also, these staging systems are generally designed to predict survival. Other characteristics, such as gene mutations maybe helpful in predicting whether thyroid cancer will behave aggressively or not. This study investigates three genes associated with thyroid tumors and shows that expression of one of them, synaptotagmin 12 (SYT12 gene), tends to predict greater progression of disease in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

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Why is it important?

Papillary thyroid cancer is increasing in prevalence and can sometimes be aggressive

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