Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a malignant tumor originating from thyroid parafollicular C cells and accounts for only <5% of thyroid cancers, but it causes a disproportionate number of thyroid cancer deaths due to its more aggressive clinical behavior compared with well-differentiated papillary and follicular thyroid carcinomas. A subset of MTC cases is hereditary and due to germline mutations in the RET tyrosine kinase receptor gene. Somatic mutations in either RET or RAS are also present in most sporadic tumors. In MTC, RET mutations lead to substrate-independent dimerization of the receptor causing constitutive activation, unrestricted signaling, and ultimately, cancer.
Category
Cancer
Brite
Human diseases in ICD-11 classification [BR:br08403]
02 Neoplasms
Malignant neoplasms, except primary neoplasms of lymphoid, haematopoietic, central nervous system or related tissues
Malignant neoplasms, stated or presumed to be primary, of specified sites, except of lymphoid, haematopoietic, central nervous system or related tissues
Malignant neoplasms of endocrine glands
2D10 Malignant neoplasms of thyroid gland
H01592 Medullary thyroid cancer
Pathway-based classification of diseases [BR:br08402]
Signal transduction
nt06526 MAPK signaling
H01592 Medullary thyroid cancer
Tumor markers [br08442.html]
H01592
