A pilot study (Stephen et al., 2011) by our group which looked at various thyroid lesions (normal thyroid, hyperthyroid, FTC, FTC-Hurthle and PTC) found CASP8, RASSF1and NIS to be frequently methylated in normal thyroid, hyperthyroid lesions, thyroid cancer and their adjacent normal. This evidence concerns the gene CASP8 and thyroiditis.