Expression of β-catenin and vascular endothelial growth factor-C in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Objective: To investigate the expression of β-catenin and vascular endothelial growth factor-C(VEGF-C) in papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC) and to analyze their clinical significance.Methods: The expression of β-catenin and VEGF-C in 70 PTC fissues and 40 normal thyroid tissues were detected by using immunohistochemistry method.Results: The ectopic expression of β-catenin and the positive expression of VEGF-C in PTC fissues were 70.00% and 75.71%,respectively;the ectopic expression of β-catenin and the positive expression f VEGF-C in normal thyroid tissues were 0 and 15.00%,respectively.The ectopic expression of β-catenin and the positive expression of VEGF-C were significantly higher in tumor tissues than in normal thyroid tissues(P<0.01);the ectopic expression of β-catenin and the positive expression of VEGF-C were significantly higher in metastatic tumors than in non-metastatic tumors(P<0.01);The ectopic expression of β-catenin was positively correlated with the expression of VEGF-C(P<0.01).Conclusions: β-catenin and VEGF-C in PTC may play an important role in the lymphangiogenesis of PTC.