Evaluating Diagnostic Value of CD10 Marker in Differentiating Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma From Benign Thyroidal Lesions

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. The present study aimed to determine the diagnostic value of the CD10 marker in differentiating PTC from its benign mimicries (i.e. different types of goiter).

In this cross-sectional study, the paraffin-embedded blocks of 70 patients referred to Rouhani Hospital in Babol with a thyroid nodule based on pathologic report and review were divided into two groups, including 35 benign and 35 malignant lesions. The participants’ demographic information (namely age and gender) and ultrasound results (size and number of nodules) were recorded in the study checklist. Thyroid paraffin-embedded blocks and stained slides of all patients were collected from the archive and, after reviewing the slides, they were examined immunohistochemically for the CD10 marker.

We evaluated 70 patients in both benign and malignant groups and assessed the status of the CD10 marker. The mean age was 49.3±9.08 years in the benign group and 45.6±16.1 years in the malignant group. Regarding the participants’ gender, in each group, nine patients were male, and 26 patients were female. Classic PTC was noticed in 26 patients and there were the follicular variants of PTC in nine patients. The CD10 positivity was significantly correlated with several nodules (p=0.030), whereas the nodule size and CD10 positivity were not significantly different between the two groups (p=0.310). The diagnostic value of the CD10 marker in differentiating PTC and benign thyroid lesions was not significantly correlated in terms of nodule size (p=0.310), and there was a statistically significant relationship between age (p=0.005) and gender (p=0.03) with the number of nodules (p=0.030).

According to the study results, the diagnostic value of the CD10 marker in differentiating papillary thyroid carcinoma from the goiter subtypes is statistically significant.