[Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid arising on thyroglossal duct cysts: report of a case and review of the literature].
Thyroglossal duct cysts are the most common congenital disorder of the neck. One percent of cases may degenerate and give rise to a cancer, mainly arising in the pericystic thyroid tissue. Some 250 cases have been reported in the literature to date. We report here on a 39-year-old man with a midline mass in the neck measuring 4 cm max. The patient was examined preoperatively by ultrasonography of the neck and assay of thyroid hormones, which yielded a diagnosis of a thyroglossal duct cyst. On the basis of these findings, the patient underwent surgery to remove the mass and, after an extempore histopathological examination, was submitted to total thyroidectomy owing to the presence of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid arising on the thyroglossal duct cyst with multiple foci in the context of the thyroid gland. Most thyroid cancers at the time of surgery are confined to the thyroid gland, infiltrating the adjacent structures in approximately 20% of cases and the local-regional lymph nodes in 8 to 11.5%. Thyroid papillary adenocarcinoma is multifocal in 21% of cases. The multifocal nature of the cancer makes total thyroidectomy mandatory at the same time as surgery is performed to remove the cyst.
d'Annibale
M
M
III Divisione di Chirurgia Oncologica, Istituto Regina Elena, Roma.
Cerasoli
V
V
Barbarosos
A
A
Carlini
S
S
Campioni
N
N
D000328:Adult; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013955:Thyroglossal Cyst / Q000150:complications*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*