Genetics of medullary thyroid cancer. An overview
Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) represents 3-5% of thyroid cancers. 75% is sporadic and 25% is the dominant component of the hereditary multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type 2 syndromes. Three different subtypes of MEN2, such as MEN2A, MEN2B, and Familial MTC (FMTC) have been defined, based on presence or absence of hyperparathyroidism, pheocromocytoma and characteristic clinical features. Mutations of the RET proto-oncogene are implicated in the pathogenesis of MTC, but there are many other mutational patterns involved.