Overexpression of HIF-2α, TWIST, and CXCR4 Is Associated with Lymph Node Metastasis in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Table 3

Correlation of HIF-2α, TWIST, and CXCR4 protein expression with clinicopathological parameters in 129 PTCs.

Characteristics	Case (𝑛)	HIF-2α			TWIST			CXCR4
		Low	High	𝑃 value	Low	High	𝑃 value	Low	High	𝑃 value
Tissue type
Normal thyroid tissue	118	118	0		118	0		118	0
Nodular hyperplasia	61	61	0	—	61	0	—	61	0	—
PTC	129	65	64	<0.001^a; <0.001^b	73	56	<0.001	58	71	<0.001^a; <0.001^b
Classic PTC	80	40	40	0.980	44	36	0.963	39	41	0.672
Follicular variant of PTC	21	11	10		12	9		9	12
Tall cell variant of PTC	15	7	8		9	6		5	10
Oncocytic variant of PTC	13	7	6		8	5		5	8
Age (years)
≤45	69	35	34	0.935	43	26	0.159	33	36	0.483
	60	30	30		30	30		25	35
Gender
Male	32	16	16	0.960	20	12	0.437	13	19	0.570
Female	97	49	48		53	44		45	52
Tumor size (cm)
≤2.3	83	45	38	0.243	51	32	0.135	40	43	0.322
	46	20	26		22	24		18	28
TNM stage
I-II	69	35	34	0.935	41	28	0.487	31	38	0.993
III-IV	60	30	30		32	28		27	33
Lymph node metastasis
Absent	61	46	15	<0.001	50	11	<0.001	40	21	<0.001
Present	68	19	49		23	45		18	50

𝑃 values derived using chi-square test to compare the expression of HIF-2α, TWIST, and CXCR4 between subgroups defined by each clinicopathological parameter; ^asignificant difference between PTCs and normal thyroid tissues; ^bsignificant difference between PTCs and nodular hyperplasia. 𝑃<0.05 significant difference.