Associations Between Nucleus Size, and Immunohistochemical Galectin-3, Cytokeratine-19 and Hbme-1 Markers in Thyroid Papillary Carcinoma: A Morphometric Analyze

This study aimed to evaluate the morphometric measurements in cases with papillary thyroid carcinoma, and determine a cut-off value to support diagnosis. Fifty cases with a diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) were included in the study with their Galectine-3, CK-19 and HBME-1 immunohistochemical staining results. Demographic and clinical data gathered from pathology reports, which included demographic information such as patients’ sex, age, macroscopic tumor size, number of tumor focuses; prognostic parameters such as lenfovascular invasion, perineural invasion, thyroid capsule invasion; and results of immunohistochemical CK- 19, Galectin-3 and HBME-1 staining. Longest nuclear diameters of 150 tumor cells and 150 normal thyrocytes of each case were manually measured in an image analysis software, and mean longest nuclear diameters (MLND-TC and MLND-NC), and also tumor cell/normal cell longest nuclear diameter ratio (TC/NC-LNDR) were calculated. MLND-TC was higher than MLND-NC. The cases with higher MLND-TC had increased risk of capsule invasion in case of a negative staining with Galectine-3, HBME-1, or CK-19. When TC/NC-LNDR was high, number of tumor focus tended to be multiple and lymphovascular invasion risk was also increased. Subtypes of PTC were not differed regarding staining patterns. And finally, increased TC/NC-LNDR was associated with increased risk of having poor prognostic factors. The results of this study suggest that MLND-NC, MLND-TC, and TC/NCLNDR are valuable and easy-to-use measures, which can assist routine histology practice.