Follicular Variant of Papillary Carcinoma: Reproducibility of Histologic Diagnosis and Utility of HBME-1 Immunohistochemistry and BRAF Mutational Analysis as Diagnostic Adjuncts

Abstract

Interobserver agreement for the diagnosis of FVPTC is poor and testing for the BRAF mutation is only marginally helpful because a minority of FVPTCs possess the mutation. HBME-1 expression when coupled with a BRAF mutation, results in 100% specificity but low sensitivity for the presence of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid including the follicular variant.