The Genomic Landscape of Thyroid Cancer Tumourigenesis and Implications for Immunotherapy

• Main Authors: Amandeep Singh, Jeehoon Ham, Joseph William Po, Navin Niles, Tara Roberts, Cheok Soon Lee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Cells
• Subjects: thyroid cancer; genomics; immunotherapy; microenvironment; PD-L1
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/10/5/1082

Thyroid cancer is the most prevalent endocrine malignancy that comprises mostly indolent differentiated cancers (DTCs) and less frequently aggressive poorly differentiated (PDTC) or anaplastic cancers (ATCs) with high mortality. Utilisation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and advanced sequencing data analysis can aid in understanding the multi-step progression model in the development of thyroid cancers and their metastatic potential at a molecular level, promoting a targeted approach to further research and development of targeted treatment options including immunotherapy, especially for the aggressive variants. Tumour initiation and progression in thyroid cancer occurs through constitutional activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway through mutations in <i>BRAF</i>, <i>RAS</i>, mutations in the phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway and/or receptor tyrosine kinase fusions/translocations, and other genetic aberrations acquired in a stepwise manner. This review provides a summary of the recent genetic aberrations implicated in the development and progression of thyroid cancer and implications for immunotherapy.