In thyroid tissues, there was a significant decrease of CDH16 positivity from normal thyroid (8 of 8 positive, 100%) to follicular adenomas (81 of 94, 86.2%), follicular carcinomas (40 of 67, 59.7%) and papillary carcinomas (14 of 212, 6.6%; (p < 0.0001). The gene discussed is CDH16; the disease is thyroid gland follicular carcinoma.