Subcutaneous Recurrences of Thyroid Cancer After Conventional Transcervical Thyroidectomy: A Case Report

• Main Authors: Xubin Dong, Shihui Lv, Xiaohua Zhang, Quan Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-11-01
• Series: Frontiers in Surgery
• Subjects: thyroid cancer; follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer; subcutaneous implantation metastasis; ultrasound; computed tomography; imaging features
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2020.586106/full

Metastatic subcutaneous implantation of the follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer is very rare. We present a 62-year-old woman with a history of follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer, who developed multiple asymptomatic subcutaneous nodules, after 5 years of initial thyroidectomy. Eventually, the subcutaneous nodules were diagnosed as tumor recurrence and completely excised. She has reportedly lived for more than 1 year, without signs of disease progression or recurrence. This case emphasizes the need for surgeons to take into account the tumor-free concept during the operation, and to a great extent prevent the occurrence of implantation recurrence.