Expression of CXC-chemokine receptor 3 in papillary thyroid cancer and its clinical significance

Objective To investigate the expression of CXC-chemokine receptor 3(CXCR3) and its association with clinical features in papillary thyroid cancer.Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of CXCR3 in 48 papillary thyroid cancer,42 thyroid adenomas and 13 normal thyroid tissues.Results The positive rate of CXCR3 in papillary thyroid cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in thyroid adenomas and normal thyroid tissues(both P0.05).The expression of CXCR3 was not significantly correlated with age,gender or the size of the tumor(all P0.05),and was correlated with the degree of lymphatic metastasis(P0.05).Conclusion CXCR3 is up-regulated in papillary thyroid cancer and associated with the progression of papillary thyroid cancer.CXCR3 may be a novel molecular marker to predict lymphatic metastasis and a new target to restrain metastasis.