Needle Track Dissemination of Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma Following Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy: Report of a Case

Abstract

Few reports have been concerned with the risk of needle track dissemination of tumor cells following fine-needle aspiration biopsy, especially for follicular thyroid nodules. A 61-year-old woman who underwent fine-needle aspiration biopsy and surgery 5 years previously for follicular thyroid adenoma presented with nodules that had developed in the sternocleidomastoid and omohyoid muscles of the anterior neck. These nodules were located along a line from the skin to the thyroid that coincided with the needle track of the previous biopsy. Following surgical resection, histological diagnosis determined the nodules to be follicular carcinoma. The clinical course and linear arrangement of the lesions were highly suggestive of needle track dissemination of tumor cells following fine-needle aspiration biopsy. Although fine-needle aspiration biopsy is a useful tool for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules, it is important to consider the risk of tumor cell dissemination.

Evaluation of the sensitivity to chemotherapeutics or thiazolidinediones of primary anaplastic thyroid cancer cells obtained by fine-needle aspiration

“…Another paper by Bravo et al (35) reported the establishment of primary cultures by needle aspiration biopsy in only one patient. However, the reports of cutaneous needle track seeding after fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNB) in patients with thyroid cancer have been published (36,37). FNA cytology overcomes this problem; in fact, in our Figure 4 The results of cell counting (2 h from the start of tetrazolium reaction) (meanGS.E.M.…”

Intraoperative Detection of Thyroid Carcinoma by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry

“…Its occurrence is an unavoidable complication. The present cases of needle track seeding of thyroid carcinoma suggested that it was important to give careful consideration to the indications for FNA [16][17][18][19].…”

Clinical complications following thyroid fine‐needle biopsy: a systematic review

“…In cases with a short interval between FNB and implantation, high cellular proliferative activity has been reported 21 . It seems that tumour size and aggressiveness increase the risk of needle track seeding 21,42 . Moreover, the implanted tumour may be more aggressive than the primary one 21,63 …”