Background
We investigated the expression of angiopoietins in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and the role of angiopoietins as biomarkers predicting the aggressiveness of PTC.
Methods
Expression of angiopoietins was evaluated by immunohistochemistry of tumor specimens from patients with PTC. We demonstrated potential correlations between expression of angiopoietins and clinicopathologic features.
Results
High expression of Ang-1 was positively correlated with a tumor size >1 cm, capsular invasion, extrathyroid extension, lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, and recurrence (P < 0.05). Moreover, multivariate analysis revealed that high expression of Ang-1 was an independent risk factor for lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001, odds ratio [OR] = 62.113) and lymphovascular invasion (P = 0.027, OR 4.405). However, there was no significant correlation between Ang-2 and clinicopathologic features.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that Ang-1 can serve as a valuable prognostic biomarker for lymph node metastasis and invasiveness in patients with PTC.