Can thyroidectomy be performed in secondary thyroid cancer?

Background: Secondary thyroid cancer is much less frequent than primary and in the majority of cases represents disseminated disease where operation on thyroid is useless or thyroid tumor is not operable, infiltrating surrounding structures. Methods: Five case reports of patients operated for second...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Diklić Aleksandar Đ., Živaljević Vladan R., Paunović Ivan R., Krgović Ksenija Lj., Tatić Svetislav B., Božić Vesna
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institute of Oncology, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia 2003-01-01
Series:Archive of Oncology
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Online Access:http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0354-7310/2003/0354-73100303183D.pdf
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Summary:Background: Secondary thyroid cancer is much less frequent than primary and in the majority of cases represents disseminated disease where operation on thyroid is useless or thyroid tumor is not operable, infiltrating surrounding structures. Methods: Five case reports of patients operated for secondary thyroid cancer. Results: Case 1: In male patient aged 64 years thyroidectomy was done for thyroid solid tumor 5 years after lung lobectomy for bronchogenic planocellular cancer. FNB suspected nonthyroid cancer histological analysis revealed planocellular cancer (Grimelius staining excluded medullar cancer) and multinodular goiter. Case 2: In female patient aged 65 years, thyroidectomy was done 4 years after left mastectomy with the history of long standing multinodular toxic goiter. Infiltrate remained in trachea and esophagus, histology revealed breast cancer metastasis in thyroid, confirmed with special mucin I, and estrogen receptor staining with negative thyroglobulin staining. Case 3: In female patient aged 76 years thyroidectomy was performed for metastatic lucidocellular kidney cancer in recurrent goiter (with Vimentin staining), a year after nephrectomy and 50 years after first goiter operation. Case 4: In female patient aged 58 years thyroidectomy was performed for planocellular infiltration of esophagus into the left thyroid lobe. Case 5: In female patient aged 77 years thyroidectomy was done for hemorrhage into thyrotoxic goiter, histology revealed metastasis of planocellular cancer of unknown origin into thyroid. Case 6: In male patient aged 54 years, thyroidectomy was done for thyroid metastatic lucidocellular cancer of kidney, 2 years after nephrectomy. Conclusion: Although prognosis of secondary thyroid cancer is poor, in rare cases aggressive surgery with adjuvant therapy may be successful.
ISSN:0354-7310