High Expression of Yes-activated Protein-1 in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Correlates With Poor Prognosis.

CONTEXT: The Hippo signal transduction pathway is highly conserved in mammals. It plays a critical role in tissue and organ size by regulating the balance between cell proliferation and apoptosis. However, there have been few reports concerning Yes-activated protein-1 (YAP-1) elevation in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC).

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether YAP-1 expression is a biomarker and high-risk clinicopathologic prognosticator in PTC.

DESIGN: A large series of patients of PTC with a long follow-up were investigated for YAP-1 expression.

SETTING: Our study was carried out in the laboratory of breast and thyroid and Department of pathology.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Immunohistochemical staining was performed on 240 patient-derived PTC specimens to analyze the correlation of YAP-1 expression with clinicopathologic features and prognosis in patients with PTC.

INTERVENTION: The 240 PTC patients were immunohistochemically assessed for YAP-1 expression.

OUTCOME MEASURES: Kaplan-Meier analysis was conducted to assess recurrence-free survival (RFS). Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine prognosticators of RFS.

RESULTS: YAP-1 expression was observed in 62.1% of PTC tumors. There were significant positive correlations between YAP-1 expression and tumor size, lymph node metastases, extrathyroidal extension, and tissue infiltration. YAP-1 expression was significantly associated with RFS. Univariate analysis revealed that YAP-1 expression significantly affects RFS. YAP-1 and extrathyroidal extension were significant independent prognosticators for RFS.

CONCLUSIONS: YAP-1 expression was significantly correlated with high-risk clinicopathologic features and inferior RFS in patients with PTC.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.