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Familial Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma with Noncysteine RET Mutations: Phenotype-Genotype Relationship in a Large Series of Patients

Service d’Endocrinologie (P.N.S., B.C.D.) and Département d’Informatique Médicale (S.M.), CHU Timone, 13385 Marseilles; Service d’Endocrinologie (A.M.) and Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire (S.B.), 44035 Nantes; Service d’Endocrinologie (V.R.) and Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire (F.S.), CHU d’Angers, 49033 Angers; Service d’Endocrinologie, CHU Avicenne (S.F.), 93009 Bobigny; Service de Médecine Interne, CHU de Strasbourg (G.C.), 67098 Strasbourg; Service d’Endocrinologie, CHU de Montpellier (L.B.), 34295 Montpellier; Institut Jean Godinot (B.M.), 51056 Reims; Laboratoire de Génétique, Hôpital E. Herriot (S.G.), 69437 Lyon; and Unité de Génétique Moléculaire, Service de Biochimie Médicale, Hôpital Pitié-Salpétrière, 75651 Paris (M.L.K.), France

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Patricia Niccoli-Sire, Service d’Endocrinologie, CHU Timone, 254 rue St. Pierre F., 13385 Marseilles Cedex 05, France. E-mail: pniccoli-sire{at}ap-hm.fr

Abstract

Familial medullary thyroid carcinoma only is related to germline mutations in the protooncogene RET, mainly in exons 10, whereas noncysteine mutations (exons 13–15) are considered infrequent. We analyzed 148 patients from 47 familial medullary thyroid carcinoma only families, and we found noncysteine RET mutations in 59.5% of these families. Of the index cases with noncysteine mutations, 43.4% presented with a multinodular goiter and high basal calcitonin; they were older at diagnosis than those with mutation in exon 10 and had more multifocal medullary thyroid carcinoma, but no difference in size, bilaterality, presence of C cell hyperplasia, or nodal metastases was found. Gene carriers with noncysteine RET mutations had a lower incidence of medullary thyroid carcinoma (78.2% vs. 94.1%) than those with mutation in exon 10; 20.2% had C cell hyperplasia only, although thyroidectomized at an older age.

In conclusion, familial medullary thyroid carcinoma with noncysteine RET mutations are not infrequent and are overrepresented in presumed sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma, suggesting that RET analysis should routinely be extended to exons 13, 14, and 15. The phenotype is characterized by a late onset of the disease, suggesting a delayed appearance of C cell disease rather than a less aggressive form. In familial medullary thyroid carcinoma gene carriers, the optimal timing for thyroidectomy remains controversial. Based on these data, we propose that surgery should be performed before elevation of the basal calcitonin level, potentially as soon as the pentagastrin test becomes abnormal.

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