The<i>BRAF</i>V600E Mutation Is an Independent, Poor Prognostic Factor for the Outcome of Patients with Low-Risk Intrathyroid Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: Single-Institution Results from a Large Cohort Study

Abstract

The BRAF(V600E) mutation was demonstrated to be a poor prognostic factor for the persistence of the disease independent from other clinical-pathological features in low-risk intrathyroid PTC patients. It could be useful to search for the BRAF(V600E) mutation in the workup of low-risk PTC patients to distinguish those who require less or more aggressive treatments. In particular, the high negative predictive value of the BRAF(V600E) mutation could be useful to identify, among low-risk PTC patients, those who could avoid 131-I treatment.