 Thyroid epithelial cells frequently express one or more members of the rearranged during transfection/papillary thyroid carcinoma (RET/PTC) fusion oncogene family during early stages of cancer, and fusion gene transcripts have been found in inflammatory conditions of the thyroid such as the autoimmune disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis.     ///    "Because these oncogenes encode chimeric proteins, novel RET/PTC epitopes may be targets of antitumor immune responses. "