Clinical and molecular characterisation of metastatic papillary thyroid cancer according to radioiodine therapy outcomes

Purpose Radioiodine (RAI) therapy remains the gold-standard approach for distant metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer (TC). The main objective of our work was to identify the clinical and molecular markers that may help to predict RAI avidity and RAI therapy response of metastatic lesions in a cohort of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 122 PTC patients submitted to RAI therapy due to distant metastatic disease. We also analysed, through next-generation sequencing, a custom panel of 78 genes and rearrangements, in a smaller cohort of 31 metastatic PTC, with complete follow-up, available RAI therapy data, and existing tumour sample at our centre. Results The most frequent outcome after RAI therapy was progression of disease in 59.0% of cases ( n = 71), with median estimate progression-free survival of 30 months. RAI avidity was associated with PTC subtype, age and stimulated thyroglobulin at first RAI therapy for metastatic disease. The most frequently altered genes in the cohort of 31 PTC patients’ primary tumours were RAS isoforms (54.8%) and TERT promoter ( TERT p) (51.6%). The presence of BRAF p.V600E or RET/ PTC alterations was associated with lower avidity ( p = 0.012). TERT p mutations were not associated with avidity ( p = 1.000) but portended a tendency for a higher rate of progression ( p = 0.063); similar results were obtained when RAS and TERT p mutations coexisted ( p = 1.000 and p = 0.073, respectively). Conclusions Early identification of molecular markers in primary tumours may help to predict RAI therapy avidity, the response of metastatic lesions and to select the patients that may benefit the most from other systemic therapies.