Pancreatic metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma: a case report with review of the literature

Abstract

In this article we give a case report on a PTC patient with pancreatic metastasis. In this case, the patient was admitted to our hospital for recurrence of PTC and occupying pancreatic lesions. We considered that the pancreatic neoplasm may be pancreatic metastasis of PTC but there is no previous experience about therapeutic approaches to this type of metastases. After some discussion the distant metastasis within the pancreas was successfully removed by a laparotomy and postoperative histology confirmed the diagnosis. After that surgery, the patient recovered well and then received total thyroidectomy and cervical lymph node dissection for recurrent thyroid cancer. After recovery he was discharged from hospital without further treatment. Eventually, he died of acute myocardial infarction in January 2010. To conclude, it is widely believed that the surgical operation should be chosen more positively in the management of those patients without multiple organ metastases. Thus on one hand it can serve to make a definite diagnosis, and on the other hand it can help the body get rid of the bulk of the tumor burden to prolong survival time of the patients.

Keywords: Papillary thyroid carcinoma; pancreatic metastasis.

Figure 1

CT manifestation of PTC (white arrow).

Figure 2

CT manifestation of solitary mass affecting the body and tail of the pancreas (white arrow).

Figure 3

HE staining of PTC (A); pancreatic metastasis (B) (the dashed arrow indicates the papillary thyroid carcinoma and the arrow indicates the normal pancreas tissue); Immunohistochemical staining of pancreatic metastasis (C-Ki67, D-TG, E-TTF-1 and F-ck19).