Prognostic and clinical significance of HOXC9 and HOXD10 in papillary thyroid cancer

BACKGROUND: The homebox superfamily play an important role in tumorigenesis. HOXC9 and HOXD10 were reported playing critical roles in tumor progression in many malignant tumors. This study aimed to research the expression of HOXC9 and HOXD10 in papillary thyroid cancer, and to verify the prognostic and clinical significance of HOXC9 and HOXD10. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression of HOXC9 and HOXD10 in 98 pairs of papillary thyroid cancer and paracancer tissues. Clinicopathologic data were collected and analyzed to verify the prognostic and clinical significance of HOXC9 and HOXD10. RESULTS: The expression of HOXC9 and HOXD10 decreased in papillary thyroid cancer. The low expression of HOXC9 was associated with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). The low expression of HOXD10 was associated with extrathyroidal extension and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). The co-expression rates of HOXC9 and HOXD10 was 44.90%. The low expression of both HOXC9 and HOXD10 was associated with lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The expression of HOXC9 and HOXD10 was downregulated in papillary thyroid cancer. Low expression of HOXC9 and HOXD10 might be related to the malignancy of papillary thyroid cancer. HOXC9 and HOXD10 may be used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in the future.