Background
The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between B‐type Raf (BRAF) kinase mutation and clinicopathological features of follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).
Methods
Eighty‐four patients with pathologically confirmed follicular variant of PTC, who underwent a preoperative BRAFV600E study, were analyzed. Clinicopathological parameters and ultrasonographic features were compared between the BRAFV600E‐positive and negative groups.
Results
A total of 41.7% of the patients showed BRAFV600E. The BRAFV600E‐positive group showed the smaller tumor size (7.3 ± 3.6 mm vs 10.7 ± 8.9 mm; p = .018) and the more frequent multifocality (25.7% vs 8.2%; p = .028). Follicular variant of PTC with BRAFV600E showed suspicious ultrasonographic features (88.6% vs 57.1%; p = .002) more frequently. BRAFV600E positivity is associated with multifocality after adjusting for age, sex, the presence of suspicious ultrasonographic features, pathological tumor size, and thyrotropin level.
Conclusion
BRAFV600E was correlated with smaller tumor size and suspicious ultrasonographic features in follicular variant of PTC. BRAFV600E was a significant parameter for predicting multifocality of follicular variant of PTC. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 37: 1590–1595, 2015