Familial papillary thyroid carcinoma (FPTC) is an inherited tumor character
ized by a more aggressive phenotype than that of its sporadic counterpart.
Its mode of inheritance as well as its genetic and molecular bases are stil
l poorly understood. On the contrary, genetic alterations in sporadic papil
lary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) are better characterized, the most common one
involving the activation of the proto-oncogene RET through somatic rearrang
ements. In the present study, we investigated by interphase fluorescence in
situ hybridization the presence of RET rearrangements in a series of 20 FP
TC. We show that one FPTC and the adenoma from the same patient carry a RET
rearrangement (type PTC1) and that this rearrangement is absent in the ger
maline. Furthermore, we excluded a RET haplotype sharing in two brothers of
the same family. These results show that RET rearrangements can indeed be
found in FPTC and confirm that RET is not involved in the inherited predisp
osition to FPTC. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved
.