A Case of Nonfunctioning Parathyroid Carcinoma / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

Parathyroid carcinoma is an uncommon endocrine tumor. Its usual clinical presentation is that of primary hyperparathyroidism with elevated serum calcium and parathyroid hormone levels. Nonfunctioning carcinoma of the parathyroid gland with normal serum calcium levels is very rare and more aggressive. Histologically, the neoplastic cells may be of variable size and shape but are usually uniform and not too dissimilar from normal parathyroid cells. There is a general agreement that a diagnosis of carcinoma based on cytologic detail is unreliable, and local invasion and metastasis constitute the only reliable criteria of malignancy. In both functional and nonfunctional carcinoma, early surgery has proven to be the only curative treatment approach whereas both chemotherapy and radiation therapy fail to produce systemic or regional benefit when used alone. En bloc excision of primary lesion with removal of any involved structures should be performed. This paper is a case report of a nonfunctioning parathyroid carcinoma and a review of the literature.