Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common thyroid malignancy. Although most patients have a favorable prognosis, lymph node metastasis increases recurrence risk and influences surgical decision-making. Glutaredoxin 3 (GLRX3) is an antioxidant redox-regulatory protein that may support tumor cell survival and progression. We retrospectively analyzed 93 patients with primary PTC who underwent surgery between January 2016 and December 2017. Immunohistochemistry showed that positive GLRX3 staining was predominantly cytoplasmic. High GLRX3 expression was detected in 51 of 93 PTC tissues (54.8%) compared with 3 of 93 matched adjacent normal thyroid tissues (3.2%; P < 0.001). High GLRX3 expression was significantly associated with capsular invasion (63.2% vs. 32.0%; P = 0.007) and lymph node metastasis (65.9% vs. 44.9%; P = 0.042). No significant associations were observed with sex, age, tumor size, TNM stage, local invasion, distant metastasis, or serum TPOAb, TgAb, TSH, and Tg levels. The association with local invasion showed a trend but did not reach significance (72.7% vs. 49.3%; P = 0.053). These results provide the first evidence that GLRX3 is overexpressed in PTC and may be involved in its invasive and metastatic behavior, supporting further functional and clinical validation.
The work titled “Overexpression of GLRX3 Is Associated with Capsular Invasion and Lymph Node Metastasis in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma”, was published on Malignancy Spectrum (published on October 8, 2026).