Clinicopathologic and Molecular Analysis of 15 Pediatric and Young Adult Patients with High-Grade Non-anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma.

Abstract

High-grade follicular cell-derived non-anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are uncommon and typically diagnosed in the sixth to seventh decade of life. These tumors are rare in the pediatric (≤ 18 years old) and young adult (19-21 years old) populations. The molecular landscape of pediatric and young adult thyroid neoplasia has been suggested to be enriched in DICER1 gene alterations. Our intent was to evaluate pediatric and young adult high-grade follicular cell-derived non-anaplastic thyroid carcinomas for driver mutations. Thyroid carcinomas involving individuals under the age of 21 years were retrieved from our institutional archives. The patient population included 13 females and 2 males aged 9-20 years. Six patients were aged 9-16 years and nine patients were aged 19-20 years. The carcinomas were classified as poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC) (n = 6) and differentiated high-grade thyroid carcinoma (DHGTC) (n = 9). Two were poorly differentiated oncocytic thyroid carcinomas, and two were poorly differentiated follicular thyroid carcinomas. A well-differentiated component was not identified in 2 PDTCs. The DHGTCs were subclassified as follicular thyroid carcinoma (n = 4), classic subtype papillary thyroid carcinoma (n = 4), and oncocytic thyroid carcinoma (n = 1). Molecular evaluation revealed one differentiated high-grade follicular thyroid carcinoma, two poorly differentiated follicular thyroid carcinomas, and two PDTCs with DICER1 gene alterations. A DICER1-altered PDTC, DICER1-altered poorly differentiated follicular thyroid carcinoma, and a poorly differentiated oncocytic thyroid carcinoma had TP53 gene alterations. BRAF V600E immunohistochemistry (IHC) was positive in two cases. PanTRK IHC was positive in two cases, one of which had a confirmed SQSTM1::NTRK3 gene fusion. Immunohistochemistry for PTEN showed loss of expression in two tumors, one of which had a loss of function PTEN germline alteration. Clinical follow-up was available for 14 patients (range 24-347 months, median 101 months). Four patients had local/regional recurrences, and one patient had distant recurrences (bones and liver). At last, follow-up 10 patients were alive with no evidence of disease, 1 was alive with disease, 1 was alive with an unknown status, 1 died of disease, and 1 died of unknown causes. In summary, we report 15 additional cases of pediatric and young adult high-grade follicular cell-derived non-anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, with a subset harboring DICER1 (n = 5), NTRK (n = 2), and PTEN (n = 2) gene alterations. In this limited case series, two patients were dead at the last follow-up. Whether these findings are consistent within this patient population remains to be addressed as more patient series are published.