Compositions and methods for characterizing thyroid neoplasia

A method for characterizing a thyroid lesion, the method comprising detecting in a biological sample of the lesion characteristic DNA copy number variation at one or more of chromosomes 7, 12 and 22, wherein said detection is by one or more of SNP array analysis, PCR analysis, hybridization, fluorescence in situ hybridization, quantitative Real-time genomic PCR analysis, gene expression array analysis, or transcriptome array analysis, thereby characterizing the lesion as having benign or malignant potential.

A method for molecularly characterizing a thyroid lesion, the method comprising detecting in a biological sample of the lesion characteristic DNA copy number variation at one or more of chromosomes 7, 12 and 22, thereby characterizing the lesion as a benign follicular adenoma, a classic papillary thyroid carcinoma or a follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma.

A method for distinguishing a follicular adenoma from other thyroid lesions, the method comprising detecting in a thyroid lesion a segmental amplification in chromosomes 7 and 12, wherein the presence of said amplification at chromosomes 7 and/or 12 is indicative that the lesion is a follicular adenoma.

The method of claim 21, wherein detection of the amplification on chromosome 12 indicates that said follicular adenoma is unlikely to progress to thyroid cancer.

A method for distinguishing adenomatoid nodules or follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma from other thyroid lesions, the method comprising detecting in a thyroid lesion a chromosome 12 amplification, wherein the presence of the chromosome 12 amplification is indicative of adenomatoid nodules or follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma.