The results showed that TFF3 was upregulated in PTC tissue and was associated with lymph node metastasis (<i>P</i>=0.0001), pathological grade (<i>P</i>=0.0002) and Snail expression (<i>P</i>=0.0001).
Quantitative RT-PCR was performed (ADM3, HGD1, LGALS3, PLAB, TFF3, TG) in the needle wash-out of 156 FNAB of follicular adenoma (FA), adenomatous nodules, follicular and papillary thyroid cancers (TC) and normal thyroid tissues (NT).
Stepwise logistic regression analysis, duplex PCR data evaluation with recursive partition machine algorithm and hierarchical cluster analysis identified SFTPB (upregulated) and TFF3 (downregulated) gene combination as most favorable for differential molecular diagnosis of PTC.