Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2023; 11(18): 4360-4367
Published online Jun 26, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i18.4360
Solitary thyroid gland metastasis from rectal cancer: A case report and review of the literature
Ying Chen, Qing-Song Kang, Yan Zheng, Fei-Bo Li
Ying Chen, Qing-Song Kang, Yan Zheng, Fei-Bo Li, Second Department of General Surgery, Zhejiang Putuo Hospital, Zhoushan 316100, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Chen Y and Li FB were mainly responsible for conceptualization, participated in the investigation and verification, and reviewed and edited the manuscript; Kang QS and Zheng Y contributed to the data curation; Kang QS and Zheng Y contributed to the formal analysis; Chen Y, Kang QS, and Zheng Y wrote the original draft.
Informed consent statement: The patient provided written informed consent for the publication of the case.
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: Fei-Bo Li, MM, Academic Editor, Second Department of General Surgery, Zhejiang Putuo Hospital, No. 19 Wenkang Road, Donggang Street, Putuo District, Zhoushan 316100, Zhejiang Province, China. zjptyylfb@sina.com
Received: March 4, 2023
Peer-review started: March 4, 2023
First decision: April 13, 2023
Revised: May 7, 2023
Accepted: May 30, 2023
Article in press: May 30, 2023
Published online: June 26, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Metastatic carcinoma of the thyroid gland is a rare encounter in clinical practice, but autopsy series showed that it is not so rare. Thyroid metastasis from colorectal cancer (CRC) is rare and has a poor prognosis. We herein report a rare case of solitary thyroid metastasis from rectal cancer combined with needle tract implantation after fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of the thyroid nodule and review the relevant literature.

CASE SUMMARY

A 54-year-old woman with a history of TNM stage III CRC presented a 1.3 cm × 1.0 cm mass in the left thyroid gland. FNA and histological examination of the left thyroid lobe surgical specimen confirmed the diagnosis of isolated metastatic adenocarcinoma from the rectum. Needle tract implantation was observed in the neck 11 mo after the FNA examination. The 2.5-cm seeding lesion was successfully removed by surgery, and the patient recovered well. The literature relevant to this clinical condition, the diagnostic workup, spread pathway, and surgical management of these rare lesions is reviewed.

CONCLUSION

For a patient with a thyroid mass and a history of CRC, metastatic thyroid carcinoma should be considered even if the patient has no evidence of other organ metastasis from CRC. FNA cytological examination of the thyroid mass is useful in the differential diagnosis between primary thyroid disease and metastatic thyroid carcinoma. Thyroid lobectomy of the gland containing the metastatic tumor is suggested in patients with metastatic carcinoma of the thyroid.

Keywords: Thyroid mass, Rectal cancer, Metastatic carcinoma, Fine-needle aspiration, Needle tract implantation, Case report

Core Tip: A rare case of solitary thyroid metastasis from rectal cancer combined with needle tract implantation after fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of the thyroid nodule is reported. The literature relevant to this clinical condition, the diagnostic workup, spread pathway, and surgical management of these rare lesions is reviewed. For a patient with a thyroid mass and a history of colorectal cancer, metastatic thyroid carcinoma should be considered. FNA cytological examination is useful in the differential diagnosis between primary thyroid disease and metastatic thyroid carcinoma. Thyroid lobectomy of the gland containing the metastatic tumor is suggested in patients with metastatic carcinoma of the thyroid.