Increasing our knowledge of BRAFV600E-modulated ECM genes and targeting the subset of genes essential for tumor aggressiveness will help establish a novel paradigm for treatment of thyroid cancers harboring BRAFV600E.
The aim of this study was to investigate fibrillin-1 expression in thyroid carcinomas at mRNA and protein level, since ECM proteins are suggested to be of great importance for the metastatic potential of carcinomas.
The mRNA expression levels of two of them, the ECM protein-1 (ECM1) and the type II transmembrane serine protease-4 (TMPRSS4), were shown to be an independent predictor of an existing thyroid carcinoma.