Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 16, 2022; 10(23): 8336-8343
Published online Aug 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i23.8336
Papillary thyroid carcinoma occurring with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma: A case report
Yu-Li Lee, Ya-Qiong Cheng, Chen-Fang Zhu, Hai-Zhong Huo
Yu-Li Lee, Ya-Qiong Cheng, Chen-Fang Zhu, Hai-Zhong Huo, Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Discipline Construction Research Center of China Hospital Development Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200011, China
Author contributions: Lee YL collected the data and wrote the paper; Chen YQ was directly responsible for revising the paper; Zhu CF and Huo HZ designed the report and analyzed the data; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient and his relatives for publication of this Case report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hai-Zhong Huo, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Discipline Construction Research Center of China Hospital Development Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 639 Zhizaoju Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200011, China. fireseah@sina.com
Received: March 16, 2022
Peer-review started: March 16, 2022
First decision: May 30, 2022
Revised: June 13, 2022
Accepted: July 8, 2022
Article in press: July 8, 2022
Published online: August 16, 2022
Processing time: 137 Days and 19.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common malignant tumor of the thyroid. However, the coexistence of PTC and sarcoma in one patient is rare. In this article, we report the case of a patient who presented with both PTC and undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS), which has not been previously reported in the online Medline database (PubMed).

CASE SUMMARY

A 71-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for a mass on the right side of his neck for one month, which rapidly enlarged within 2 wk with distending pain. The patient was diagnosed with a thyroid malignancy by fine-needle aspiration and underwent total thyroidectomy and bilateral central lymph node dissection. Histology and immunohistochemistry revealed features of both PTC and UPS. The thyroid cancer 8 gene detection kit results showed BRAF and telomerase reverse transcriptase mutations. The disease progressed rapidly, and the patient died four months after surgery from extensive lung metastasis.

CONCLUSION

Our report highlights the patient’s pathological characteristics and related genetic mutations. Due to the rapid development and poor prognosis of cooccurring PTC and sarcoma, it is important for clinical physicians and pathologists to raise awareness of this type of tumor.

Keywords: Thyroid tumor; Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma; BRAF; TERT; Case report

Core Tip: This manuscript reports the case of a patient diagnosed with coexisting papillary thyroid carcinoma and undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma. The coexistence of these two pathological types is extremely rare and has not been previously reported in the online Medline database. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and pathological characteristics of this case and analyzed the related genetic mutations and possible treatments to raise awareness of this rapidly developing tumor.