Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2018 Aug 15;12(1):220.
doi: 10.1186/s13256-018-1745-5.

Coexistence of medullary thyroid carcinoma and recurrent non-functional pituitary adenoma: a case report

Mohammad Bagherzadeh  1 , Arya Aminorroaya  2   3 , Jamshid Vafaeimanesh  4 , Mohammad Reza Mohajeri-Tehrani  5   6
Affiliations
Case Reports

Coexistence of medullary thyroid carcinoma and recurrent non-functional pituitary adenoma: a case report

Mohammad Bagherzadeh et al. J Med Case Rep. .

Abstract

Background: Medullary thyroid carcinoma and pituitary adenoma are neuroendocrine tumors and their coexistence has not been reported in the literature, previously. Medullary thyroid carcinoma is a neoplasm of the thyroid gland arising from parafollicular c-cells producing calcitonin, and pituitary adenoma is a benign hyperplasia of the cells of the pituitary gland. Coexistence of these neoplasms can be explained by being affected by simultaneous primary neoplasms or tumor-to-tumor metastasis phenomenon.

Case presentation: We present the case of a 60-year-old Persian man who presented to the clinic with a chief complaint of headache for the last 2 months. His past medical history was significant for non-functional pituitary macroadenoma and medullary thyroid carcinoma and he had received a total thyroidectomy and a transsphenoidal surgery several years ago. Diagnostic evaluations revealed that the pituitary adenoma has recurred. He was well and symptom-free after the second transsphenoidal surgery for resection of the adenoma. Noticeably, investigations were negative for any form of multiple endocrine neoplasia syndromes; however, we could not rule them out definitively.

Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, it is the first case reported in the literature of a patient who has been affected by recurrent non-functional pituitary adenoma and medullary thyroid carcinoma, concomitantly. Although this association can be accidental, it emphasizes the fact that patients with a history of a neoplasm should be monitored regularly in order to diagnose and treat possible second primary cancers in a timely manner. Of note, this consideration is of great importance in patients whose first neoplasms have better prognosis and survival rates, which provide them more time to develop second primary cancers, for example, pituitary adenoma.

Keywords: Medullary; Multiple endocrine neoplasia; Pituitary adenoma; Pituitary neoplasms; Thyroid cancer; Thyroid neoplasms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

A written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report. A copy of the written consent is available upon request by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Spielman DB, Badhey A, Kadakia S, Inman JC, Ducic Y. Rare thyroid malignancies: an overview for the oncologist. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol) 2017;29(5):298–306. doi: 10.1016/j.clon.2017.01.041. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Theodros D, Patel M, Ruzevick J, Lim M, Bettegowda C. Pituitary adenomas: historical perspective, surgical management and future directions. CNS Oncology. 2015;4(6):411–429. doi: 10.2217/cns.15.21. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Roelfsema F, Biermasz NR, Pereira AM. Clinical factors involved in the recurrence of pituitary adenomas after surgical remission: a structured review and meta-analysis. Pituitary. 2012;15(1):71–83. doi: 10.1007/s11102-011-0347-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Saito T, Miura D, Taguchi M, Takeshita A, Miyakawa M, Takeuchi Y. Coincidence of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A with acromegaly. Am J Med Sci. 2010;340(4):329–331. doi: 10.1097/MAJ.0b013e3181e73fba. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bhatoe HS, Badwal S, Dutta V, Kannan N. Pituitary metastasis from medullary carcinoma of thyroid: case report and review of literature. J Neuro-Oncol. 2008;89(1):63–67. doi: 10.1007/s11060-008-9586-5. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types