A Case of Concurrent Papillary and Medullary Thyroid Carcinomas Detected as Recurrent Medullary Carcinoma after Initial Surgery for Papillary Carcinoma / 대한갑상선학회지

ABSTRACT

As the prevalence of thyroid carcinoma is rapidly increasing, coexisting subtypes of thyroid carcinomas are often found. However, concurrent papillary and medullary carcinomas in the thyroid gland are extremely rare. We report the case of a 50-year-old man with co-occurrence of multiple papillary and medullary thyroid carcinomas; the latter were undetected at initial diagnosis. Sixty-three months after the initial operation performed because of papillary carcinoma diagnosis, a metastatic lymph node was detected in the left level IV region, which was revealed as medullary carcinoma. The histopathologic results from initial surgery were reviewed, and we found multiple coexisting medullary carcinomas that were not identified initially. The incidence of concurrent papillary and medullary thyroid carcinomas will continue to increase as rates of diagnosis of and surgery for thyroid carcinoma increase. Therefore, surgeons and pathologists should be aware of the possible coexistence of subtypes of thyroid carcinomas to avoid missing concurrent lesions.