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Interaction of Age at Diagnosis with Transcriptional Profiling in Papillary Thyroid Cancer

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Abstract

Background

Age is an important prognostic factor for papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). However, little is known about why advanced age is associated with poor prognosis. The study investigated the changes in transcriptional profiling related to age.

Methods

RNA sequencing data of PTC samples were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas data portal. Spearman’s correlation was used to test the association between age and gene expression. Correlation in the same direction to disease severity was considered functionally relevant. Functional enrichment analysis and pathway annotations were performed.

Results

There was no correlation between age and thyroid-specific genes, except for a weak, negative association between age and TSHR expression. Among 272 genes with a positive association between gene expression and age, the most prominent alteration was metabolic pathways, particularly glycolysis. Among 482 genes with a negative association between gene expression and age, the most enriched biological process was immune-related functions, particularly natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity.

Conclusions

Our analysis characterized the age-associated molecular landscape in PTC. Metabolic alterations and immune dysregulation are probable mechanisms involving in worse prognosis in older patients with PTC.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by research grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST-104-2314-B-195-004-MY3) and MacKay Memorial Hospital (MMH-10535). Results from this study were presented in part as a poster at a European Association for Cancer Research conference, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in January 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Yi-Chiung Hsu

  2. Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yi-Chiung Hsu

  3. Department of Surgery, MacKay Memorial Hospital and Mackay Medical College, 92, Chung-Shan North Road, Section 2, Taipei, 10449, Taiwan

    Chien-Liang Liu, Po-Sheng Yang, Chung-Hsin Tsai, Jie-Jen Lee & Shih-Ping Cheng

  4. Mackay Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chien-Liang Liu, Chung-Hsin Tsai & Jie-Jen Lee

  5. Department of Pharmacology and Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Po-Sheng Yang, Jie-Jen Lee & Shih-Ping Cheng

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  1. Yi-Chiung Hsu
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Correspondence to Shih-Ping Cheng.

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Hsu, YC., Liu, CL., Yang, PS. et al. Interaction of Age at Diagnosis with Transcriptional Profiling in Papillary Thyroid Cancer. World J Surg 40, 2922–2929 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-016-3625-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-016-3625-8

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