Metastasis of a caecal neuroendocrine carcinoma to the thyroid gland
- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Endocrinology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena I-41012, Italy; papigiampaolo@hotmail.com
- 2Department of Forensic and Morphologic Sciences, Section of Pathology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
- 3Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Endocrinology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
- 4Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Metastatic tumours to the thyroid have been reported to arise from several organs.1,2 We describe a unique case of caecal neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) metastatic to the thyroid gland, mimicking a primary medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC).
A 56 year old woman was referred after complaining of dysphagia and hoarseness. Fifteen months before, she underwent surgery because of a well differentiated caecal NEC, low grade malignant, with metastases to the left ovary, the omentum, and the abdominal lymph nodes (World Health Organisation classification).3 The tumour was composed of spindle shaped cells, exhibiting scanty eosinophilic cytoplasm, salt and pepper nuclei, and inconspicuous nucleoli (fig 1). Neoplastic cells showed intense reactivity with antibodies against CAM 5.2, …
