Histologic variants of papillary and follicular carcinomas associated with anaplastic spindle and giant cell carcinomas of the thyroid: an analysis of rhabdoid and thyroglobulin inclusions

Abstract

We describe the histologic variants of papillary and follicular carcinomas associated with 109 spindle and giant cell carcinomas (SGCC) of the thyroid and determine the incidence of rhabdoid and thyroglobulin inclusions in these tumors. In addition, we searched for rhabdoid and thyroglobulin inclusions in 120 papillary carcinomas (PC) (all 15 variants included), 23 differentiated follicular carcinomas (DFC), (6 with insular pattern), 6 poorly differentiated follicular carcinomas (PDFC) and 34 follicular adenomas (FA). The following differentiated thyroid carcinomas coexisted with SGCC: 51 (46.8%) PC, (34 conventional type, 14 tall cell variant and 3 follicular variant), 6 (5.5%) DFC, 1 follicular carcinoma with insular pattern (0.9%), and 3 oncocytic carcinomas (2.8%). Eleven SGCC (10%) and 2 (33%) PDFC showed rhabdoid features, but lacked thyroglobulin inclusions. Thyroglobulin inclusions were found in 10 FA (29%), 8 (17%) follicular variants of PC and in 7 (30.4%) DFC. There were no rhabdoid inclusions in any of these differentiated thyroid tumors. Our findings support the hypothesis that most SGCC result from dedifferentiation or anaplastic transformation although the mechanisms that underlie this transformation remain unknown. The finding that only 1 (0.9%) SGCC was associated with follicular carcinoma with insular pattern contradicts the opinion that this tumor occupies an intermediate position between differentiated and anaplastic carcinomas. Rhabdoid features are markers of PDFC and SGCC while thyroglobulin inclusions are markers of FA and differentiated thyroid carcinomas with follicular phenotype.