Introduction Papillary thyroid carcinoma has a very high rate of lateral neck node metastases, and there is almost unanimity concerning the fact that some sort of formal neck dissection must be performed to address the clinical neck disease in these cases. Although there is an agreement that levels II to IV need to be cleared in these patients, the clearance of level V is debatable. Objectives We herein have tried to analyze various papers that have documented a structured approach to neck dissection in these patients. Moreover, we have also tried to consider this issue through various aspects, like spinal accessory nerve injury and the impact of neck recurrence on survival. Data Synthesis The PubMed, Medline, Google Scholar, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER), and Ovid databases were searched for studies written in English that focused on lateral neck dissection (levels II–IV or II–V) for papillary thyroid carcinoma. Case reports with 10 patients or less were excluded. Conclusions The current evidence is equivocal whether to clear level V or not, and the studies published on this issue are very heterogeneous. Level II-IV versus level II-V selective neck dissections in node-positive papillary thyroid carcinoma patients is far from categorical, with pros and cons for both approaches. Hence, we feel that there is a need for more robust homogeneous data in order to provide an answer to this question.
BackgroundMucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands usually metastasizes to the lungs, liver, bone, brain, and skin. We report a rare case of distant metastasis of high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the parotid to the ipsilateral bulbar conjunctiva of the eye.Case presentationSixty-year-old male of Kashmiri origin presented to our tertiary care referral cancer institute with exophytic lesion of the left bulbar conjunctiva following his treatment for mucoepidermoid cancer of ipsilateral parotid gland, 9 months back. The lesion was biopsied and reported as high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Radiological imaging showed no other site of recurrence. The patient underwent orbital exenteration and final histopathological evaluation reported the lesion as mucoepidermoid carcinoma.ConclusionsDistal metastasis from mucoepidermoid carcinoma to bulbar conjunctiva is very rare and to the best of our knowledge has not been previously reported.
BackgroundDistant metastasis from differentiated thyroid carcinoma at presentation is rare and isolated liver metastasis on presentation is almost unknown. We report a case of primary follicular carcinoma of the thyroid with isolated liver metastasis at presentation.Case presentationA 65-year-old man of Kashmiri origin presented to our tertiary referral center with obstructive jaundice; he was evaluated with magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and positron emission tomography-computed tomography. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography documented a lesion in his liver in addition to a metabolically active thyroid nodule. Fine needle aspiration cytology of the liver lesion supplemented with immunohistochemical analysis using thyroid transcription factor 1 confirmed the lesion as being an isolated metastasis from the primary thyroid lesion (which on fine needle aspiration cytology showed follicular architecture).ConclusionsTo best of our knowledge, this is first reported case of primary differentiated thyroid carcinoma presenting with isolated liver metastasis manifesting as obstructive jaundice.
There is near consensus that prophylactic lateral neck dissection has no role in the management of differentiated thyroid cancer, but the extent of lateral neck dissection in differentiated thyroid cancer remains controversial, especially whether level V should be addressed or not. There is lot of heterogeneity in reporting of the management of level V in papillary thyroid cancer. We at our Institute address the lateral neck positive papillary thyroid cancer with selective neck dissection involving levels II-IV, performing extended level IV dissection with inclusion of the triangular area delineated by the sternocleidomastoid muscle, the clavicle, and the perpendicular line drawn to the clavicle from the point where the horizontal line at the level of cricoid cuts the posterior border of sternocleidomastoid muscle. Retrospective analysis of the departmental data set related to thyroidectomy with lateral neck dissection from 2013 to mid-2019 for papillary thyroid cancer, was carried out. Patients with recurrent papillary thyroid cancer were excluded as were patients with involvement of level V. Data related to the demography of patients, histological diagnosis, and postoperative complications were compiled and summarized. Note was made of the incidence of ipsilateral neck recurrence and the neck level involved with recurrence noted. Data was analyzed for fifty-two patients of nonrecurrent papillary thyroid cancer who had undergone total thyroidectomy and lateral neck dissection involving levels II-IV, with extended dissection at level IV. It should be noted that none of the patients had clinical involvement of level V. Only two patients had lateral neck recurrence, both the recurrences were in level III, one on the ipsilateral side and the other on the contralateral side. Recurrence in the central compartment was noted in two patients, with one of these patients also having ipsilateral level III recurrence. One of the patients had distal metastasis to the lungs. Transient paresis of the unilateral vocal cords was noted in seven patients which got resolved within 2 months in all of them. Transient hypocalcemia was noted in four patients. Although our series has a small sample size with limited follow-up, it is one of the few studies in which prophylactic level V dissection has been studied in a homogenous study population of non-recurrent papillary thyroid cancer. Our study has shown that prophylactic dissection of level V may have a limited role, but further large multi-institutional studies need to be carried out to come up with a definite answer.
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