Thyroid Cancer Initially Presenting Compression Fracture without Common Thyroid Symptoms

Thyroid carcinoma is the commonest endocrinological malignancy. After papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is the second most common histological subtype. Common presentations of FTC include a solitary thyroid nodule and cervical lymphadenopathy. The incidence of individuals diagnosed with thyroid cancer showing initially distant metastatic disease ranges from 1 to 9%. Also, the incidence of solitary bone metastasis from thyroid is only 2 to 3%. We report a case of a patient with FTC whose initial presentation was low back pain and right buttock pain due to vertebral metastasis rather than the usual neck lumps or symptoms of thyroid disease.

Atypical Thoracic Solitary Plasmacytoma

Plasmacytoma is a rare disease, which afflicts 2 to 3 people per every 100,000 of the general population. Solitary plasmacytoma accounts for 5% of the plasma cell neoplasm. Solitary plasmacytoma of the bone appears more vividly in the axial skeleton (25-60%), which has the red marrow and usually affects the thoracic vertebrae. We report a case of 54-year-old man who has a chest pain on the right side. After being treated for the muscle pain, his symptoms of pain were changed into weakness and allesthesia. We checked the MRI and found a mass lesion in the T5 vertebra, but there were no significant laboratory findings, in blood and urine samples. Finally, he got an operation due to the aggravation of the weakness. The result of biopsy indicated that it was a solitary plasmacytoma of the spine. After 5 months later, the weakness and allesthesia had disappeared.

Chemoembolization in Synchronous Liver Metastases from Nonfunctioning Endocrine Tumor of Pancreas / 한국간담췌외과학회지

Pancreatic endocrine tumors are rare and represent a heterogeneous group of benign or malignant lesions. In nonfunctioning tumors, lacking the features of an endocrine tumor syndrome, they seldom present until there is advanced local disease. Endocrine tumors of the pancreas, even in case of liver involvement, are generally characterized by a slower evolution and a better prognosis, if compared with ductal carcinoma. This fact gives reason to a radical surgical approach and to the research of any effective adjuvant treatment including hormonal suppression, systemic chemotherapy and hepatic transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). We report a case of synchronous liver metastases from nonfunctioning pancreatic endocrine tumor in 66 year old female patient.