Ttf-1

[darmagirl]

What does strongly positive for TTF-1 mean

[John Irlam, DO, FASCP]

Thyroid transcription factor (TTF-1) is a marker that is expressed on the surface of tumor cells.  This is often associated with thyroid cancer and well as small cell and adenocarcinoma of the lung.  Strongly positive is a word that us pathologists use to describe how much the tumor cells express this molecule when viewed under the microscope.  In most cases it doesn't matter how strongly it is expressed, if it's positive it's positive.  Hope that this helps!

[darmagirl]

hi John. they took the lump out and my results came back as ectopic hurthle cell variant of papillary carcinoma. they also did an fna on a 5mm nodule on thyroid and it came back benign. so for now they will keep monitoring me as there is nothing wrong with my thyroid ?

[darmagirl]

hi my results came back as ectopic hurthle cell papillary carcinoma so for now they will keep monitoring me as there is nothing wrong with my thyroid ?

[John Irlam, DO, FASCP]

What did the biopsy come back as?  

[darmagirl]

Thank you for your reply. I had fna done on a supraclavicular lymph node that came back positive for ttf-1 .but they cannot diagnose me as yet as they cannot find primary. I get the whole lymph node taken out tomorrow. I was a little confused as to whether I do or don't have cancer.