TERT and thyroid cancer: However, in reports of Melo et al. that detected an association between TERT mutations and aggressive clinicopathological features, there was enough evidence to state that TERT promoter mutations with or without BRAF V600E was a major indicator of poor prognosis in differentiated thyroid cancer, and notably in PTC, due to its association with distant metastasis and increased disease-specific mortality (26, 39, 40).