Thyroid carcinoma with extensive tumor thrombus in the atrium

Abstract

To our knowledge, only a few cases of thyroid carcinoma with an extensive tumor thrombus in the atrium have been reported in literature. We describe a unique case of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid with extensive tumor thrombus in the atrium. A 74-year-old man consulted our hospital because of thyroid carcinoma with an extensive tumor thrombus in the atrium. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a 2-cm tumor with extensive continuous tumor thrombus in the left jugular vein, innominate vein, superior vena cava, and atrium. The tumor was resected to reduce the risk of sudden death from tumor embolism into the pulmonary arteries. Histologically, the diagnosis was papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. Thyroid carcinoma, especially papillary carcinoma, rarely develops a macroscopic tumor thrombus. Patients with an extensive tumor thrombus generally have poor prognoses and high mortality. This patient has been followed for 7 months after successful operation without recurrence.

Thyroid carcinoma with extensive tumor thrombus in the superior vena cava: A case report

“…Only a few reports have shown thyroid cancer patients with tumor thrombus that progress to the innominate vein, SVC, and intracranial sigmoid sinus beyond the internal jugular vein [1], [9], [10], [11]. Yamagami et al [12] reported a case of thyroid cancer with extensive tumor thrombus in the atrium.…”

“…When tumor thrombus progresses to the right atrium, cardiopulmonary bypass is necessary. Yamaguchi et al [12] reported that tumor thrombus that extended to the right atrium was removed with the right atrium and innominate vein incision by using a cardiopulmonary bypass. Third, the secession of tumor thrombus should be considered perioperatively.…”

Successful surgical treatment of advanced follicular thyroid carcinoma with tumor thrombus infiltrating the superior vena cava: report of a case

“…They also reviewed six such cases reported before 1940, all of which resulted in death as a direct result of the vascular occlusion shortly after diagnosis. We reviewed 19 cases of SVC involvement from DTC, reported since the review by Thompson et al [4,5,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] (Table 1). The age of the patients ranged from 26 to 84 years (average 65 years), and there were 4 men and 15 women, with no predominance in laterality.…”

“…Thus, aggressive surgery is thought to be justified for DTC with SVC involvement [11]. Several successful operations for poorly DTC [13,15,18,20] or Hurthle cell carcinoma [21] have been reported, even when the surgical indications might have been limited because of its invasive nature. Rapid progression of the disease with systemic dissemination after surgery for ATC [7,8], and for PTC possibly transformed to ATC [14], have been reported.…”

Isolated Cardiac Metastasis From Papillary Thyroid Cancer: Prolonged Survival with Late Diagnosis Related to Inadequate Positron Emission Tomography Preparation

“…Cardiac metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) are very rare; in most cases they result from direct extension from the major blood vessels of the neck (2,3). They are also discovered principally in patients with widespread systemic tumor dissemination (4). We report here a unique case of isolated cardiac metastasis from PTC, which allowed us to follow the natural history of this condition.…”