NCOA4

Overview

NCOA4 (Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 4) is a nuclear receptor coactivator that facilitates androgen receptor transcriptional activity. It is also known as a ferritinophagy receptor involved in iron homeostasis through selective autophagy of ferritin. In thyroid cancer, NCOA4 is a fusion partner for RET, forming the RET/NCOA4 (also known as PTC3) fusion oncogene, which is a recurrent driver in papillary and poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas.

Alterations observed in the corpus

  • NCOA4 acts as a fusion partner for RET (RET-NCOA4 fusion) in 5 PDTC cases identified by targeted RNA-seq in a 341-gene panel study of poorly differentiated and anaplastic thyroid cancers; RET fusions (with CCDC6 or NCOA4) are among the gene fusions detected in PDTC but not ATC in this cohort PMID:26878173
  • Partner in one NCOA4-RET fusion identified in MSS metastatic CRC; RET fusions are rare but potentially actionable events in this cohort PMID:29316426

Cancer types (linked)

  • THPD (Poorly Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma): RET-NCOA4 fusion is a recurrent driver fusion identified in PDTC; mutually exclusive with point mutations in RAS/BRAF. PMID:26878173

Co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity

  • RET fusions (including RET-NCOA4) are mutually exclusive with BRAF V600E, RAS mutations, and ALK fusions in PDTC. PMID:26878173

Therapeutic relevance

  • RET fusions in thyroid cancer are targetable by RET-selective inhibitors (e.g., selpercatinib, pralsetinib); this study identifies NCOA4 as a RET partner but does not evaluate RET-targeted therapy outcomes. PMID:26878173

Open questions

  • Whether the frequency of RET-NCOA4 vs RET-CCDC6 fusions affects response to RET inhibitors in PDTC is not addressed in this study. PMID:26878173

Sources

This page was processed by crosslinker on 2026-05-14. - PMID:29316426

This page was processed by wiki-cli on 2026-05-15.