Microarray analysis of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded follicular thyroid carcinoma samples from patients who developed postoperative distant metastasis

OBJECTIVE: Although follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) generally has a good prognosis, it occasionally metastasises, leading to poor prognosis. Unfortunately, minimally invasive FTC (mi-FTC) and encapsulated angioinvasive FTC (ea-FTC) cannot be distinguished cytopathologically from thyroid follicular adenoma (FTA), a benign tumour with a good prognosis. Therefore, a molecular diagnosis to distinguish mi- or ea-FTC from FTA is needed for clinical treatment. Several transcriptomics/proteomics studies have searched for FTC biomarkers. However, the results of these studies were not consistent, which could be partly explained by inaccurate diagnosis of the specimens analysed. DATA DESCRIPTION: We conducted a microarray-based genome-wide transcriptome analysis using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded mi- or ea-FTC specimens from patients who developed distant metastasis up to 10 years postoperatively, which ensured the accuracy of diagnosis.