Gene expression profilling of anaplastic thyroid carcinomas (ATC) and normal thyroid tissues

ATC are among the most lethal malignancies, for which there is no effective treatment. ATC global gene expression was profiled and compared to normal thyroid tissues, in order to elucidate the molecular alterations contributing to ATC development, and to identify novel therapeutic targets. RNA were extracted from 5 ATC samples. 3 samples were obtained at time of surgery, and were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. The RNA from the remaining samples were collected during fine-needle aspiration biopsies, being conserved in RLT buffer (RNeasy Mini Kit, Quiagen) and maintained at -70ºC. RNA were also extracted from 3 normal thyroid samples, which were collected during surgery, taken from the opposite lobe of thyroid tumors. We also hybridized a commercial pool of human thyroid total RNA (BD Bioscience).