A Review on the Molecular Pathology of Epithelial Thyroid Tumors

Epithelial thyroid tumors are all from the thyrocytes, the follicular epithelial cells of the thyroid. If these cells do not replicate the normal mechanisms of growth, cell division, and apoptosis, and enter to the uncontrolled growth phase, thyroid tumors arise. Most of these tumors are benign, but some of them are slow-growing malignancies, and a small number of them are also highly-invasive cancers. Failure of the natural mechanisms, and creation a tumor can be due to genetic and epigenetic changes in proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Understanding molecular pathology of epithelial thyroid tumors, and recognizing molecular changes of proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes can explain their different clinical features, providing diagnostic and prognostic information, and discovering of the effective treatments. On the other hand, it can provide further research opportunities in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment areas. This review article targeted the molecular pathology of epithelial thyroid tumors.