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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Molecular Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2025.1542821
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Trends in Cancer Research: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Breakthroughs View all articles

Immune Cells in Thyroid Adenoma and Carcinoma: Uncovering a Hidden Value of Assessing Tumor-Host Interplay and its Potential Application in Thyroid Cytopathology

Provisionally accepted
Iryna Omelianenko Iryna Omelianenko 1,2Nazarii Kobyliak Nazarii Kobyliak 1,3Tetyana Falalyeyeva Tetyana Falalyeyeva 1,2*Oleksii Seleznov Oleksii Seleznov 1Pavlina Botsun Pavlina Botsun 1Lyudmila Ostapchenko Lyudmila Ostapchenko 2Oleksandr Korotkyi Oleksandr Korotkyi 2Liudmyla Domylivska Liudmyla Domylivska 2Olena Tsyryuk Olena Tsyryuk 2Galyna Mykhalchyshyn Galyna Mykhalchyshyn 3Tetiana Shapochka Tetiana Shapochka 1Oksana Sulaieva Oksana Sulaieva 1,4
  • 1 Medical Laboratory CSD, Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 2 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 3 Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 4 Kyiv Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Although the role of tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) in thyroid cancer is well established, little data exists about the differences in immune cell presence in thyroid adenomas and carcinomas. We assume that immune cell density could be an additional diagnostic criterion for differentiating benign and malignant tumors in thyroid aspirates.The current study compared the immune contexture of thyroid adenoma (TA) and thyroid carcinoma (TC) in histological and cytological specimens of III-V categories.This pilot study included 72 cases (36 of TA and 36 of TC) with verified histological diagnosis and pre-operative cytology corresponding to categories III, IV and V according to the Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytology. The number of CD8+, CD68+ and CD163+ cells was assessed in histological samples of TA and TC with further comparison to cytological specimens. Besides, the expression of STAT6 and SMAD4 as potential regulators of TIME was evaluated in the study.Results: TC demonstrated an immune-rich profile representing abundant tumor-associated CD8+ lymphocytes, CD68 and CD163+ macrophages. In contrast, TA represented mostly a low immune cell infiltration. The higher immunogenicity of TC was accompanied by the more profound expression of Immune Cells in Thyroid Adenoma and Carcinoma STAT6 and SMAD4 in tumor cells. The number of immune cells in cytological specimens correlated with CD8+ (r=0.693; p<0.001) and CD163+ cells (r=0.559; p<0.001) in histological samples, reflecting the differences in the tumor immune microenvironment between benign and malignant thyroid neoplasms.Conclusions: TC demonstrated high immunogenicity compared to TA, which correlated to the number of immune cells in cytological specimens. The number of immune cells in thyroid cytology samples could be an additional criterion in cytological diagnostics for III-V Bethesda categories. Further investigations are needed to validate the findings of the study.

    Keywords: thyroid cancer, immune cells, immune microenvironment, thyroid adenoma, papilary thyroid carcinoma

    Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 09 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Omelianenko, Kobyliak, Falalyeyeva, Seleznov, Botsun, Ostapchenko, Korotkyi, Domylivska, Tsyryuk, Mykhalchyshyn, Shapochka and Sulaieva. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tetyana Falalyeyeva, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine

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