Raman Spectroscopy Discloses Altered Molecular Profile in Thyroid Adenomas.
Armida Sodo, Martina Verri, Andrea Palermo, Anda Mihaela Naciu, Marialuisa Sponziello, Cosimo Durante, Michael Di Gioacchino, Alessio Paolucci, Alessandra di Masi, Filippo Longo, Pierfilippo Crucitti, Chiara Taffon, Maria Antonietta Ricci, Anna Crescenzi
Author Information
Armida Sodo: Department of Sciences, University Roma Tre, 00146 Rome, Italy.
Martina Verri: Pathology Unit, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Andrea Palermo: Unit of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Campus Bio-Medico University, 00128 Rome, Italy. ORCID
Anda Mihaela Naciu: Unit of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Campus Bio-Medico University, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Marialuisa Sponziello: Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. ORCID
Cosimo Durante: Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. ORCID
Michael Di Gioacchino: Department of Sciences, University Roma Tre, 00146 Rome, Italy. ORCID
Alessio Paolucci: Department of Sciences, University Roma Tre, 00146 Rome, Italy.
Alessandra di Masi: Department of Sciences, University Roma Tre, 00146 Rome, Italy. ORCID
Filippo Longo: Unit of Thoracic Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Pierfilippo Crucitti: Unit of Thoracic Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Chiara Taffon: Pathology Unit, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Maria Antonietta Ricci: Department of Sciences, University Roma Tre, 00146 Rome, Italy. ORCID
Anna Crescenzi: Pathology Unit, Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Follicular patterned nodules are sometimes complex to be classified due to ambiguous nuclear features and/or questionable capsular or vascular invasion. In this setting, there is a poor inter-observer concordance even among expert pathologists. Raman spectroscopy was recently used to separate benign and malignant thyroid nodules based on their molecular fingerprint; anyway, some histologically proved follicular adenomas were clustered as having a characteristic profile of malignant lesions. In this study, we analyzed five follicular thyroid adenomas with a malignant spectroscopic profile compared to five follicular adenomas with a benign Raman spectrum in order to assess possible molecular differences between the two groups. Morphological, immunohistochemical, and molecular analyses evidenced expression of malignancy-associated proteins in four out of five malignant clustered adenomas. The remaining malignant clustered adenoma showed a mutation previously associated with autonomously functioning follicular carcinomas. In conclusion, thyroid follicular adenomas are a group of morphologically benign neoplasms that may have altered the mutational or expression profile; cases of adenomas with altered immunophenotype are recognized as showing a profile associated with malignancy by Raman spectroscopy. This correlation warrants a more extensive evaluation and suggests a potential predictive value of spectroscopic assessment in recognizing characteristics associated with tumor progression in follicular thyroid neoplasms.
