Thyroid metastatic carcinoma caused by primary lung cancer—a case report

Abstract

Thyroid metastatic cancer is rare. It may be ignored due to the longer course of the primary disease and the less obvious symptoms. With the popularity of ultrasonography, it can help the early detection of thyroid metastatic cancer. In this case, a 50-year-old woman was diagnosed with thyroid metastasis due to a "decade of lung cancer". The main clinical manifestation of the patient was that although the thyroid area was not enlarged, the texture was stiff. Unlike common thyroid cancer, this patient did not experience hoarseness. The patient underwent ultrasound-guided biopsy of the thyroid area and examined the pathological section. Unlike previous ultrasound manifestations of common thyroid metastatic cancer, the ultrasound results in this case were shown as diffuse, point-like hyperechoic. Ultrasound-guided biopsy of the thyroid site was performed on the patient, and pathological sections were examined. The obtained thyroid pathology section results are shown that metastases of poorly differentiated cancers, tending to adenocarcinoma, considering metastasis in combination with history. The treatment used by this patient was taking thyroxine tablets, but the efficacy was not satisfactory. Early diagnosis of metastatic cancer provides feasible help, and ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy may be used to further diagnose metastatic thyroid cancer if necessary.

Metastases to the Thyroid Gland: What Can We Do?

“…IHC analysis is helpful in distinguishing secondary thyroid neoplasms from primary thyroid tumors; for example, positive immunological staining of thyroglobulin and thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) indicates primary thyroid tumors, while secondary thyroid neoplasms usually do not express these markers but express specific markers related to their origin tissues [ 5 , 25 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. Therefore, IHC analysis can also be used to determine the source of primary tumors in metastases to the thyroid gland.…”