Gan FJ, Zhou T, Wu S, Xu MX, Sun SH. Do medullary thyroid carcinoma patients with high calcitonin require bilateral neck lymph node clearance? A case report.
World J Clin Cases 2021;
9:1343-1352. [PMID:
33644201 PMCID:
PMC7896685 DOI:
10.12998/wjcc.v9.i6.1343]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2020] [Revised: 08/24/2020] [Accepted: 10/26/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
In clinical work, 85%-90% of malignant thyroid diseases are papillary thyroid cancer (PTC); thus, clinicians neglect other types of thyroid cancer, such as medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC).
CASE SUMMARY
We report a 53-year-old female patient with a preoperative calcitonin level of 345 pg/mL. There was no definitive diagnosis of MTC by preoperative fine-needle aspiration cytology or intraoperative frozen pathology, but the presence of PTC and MTC was confirmed by postoperative paraffin pathology. The patient underwent total thyroidectomy and bilateral central lymph node dissection. Close follow-up at 1.5 years after surgery revealed no signs of recurrence or metastasis.
CONCLUSION
The issue in clinical work-up regarding types of thyroid cancer provides a novel and challenging idea for the surgical treatment of MTC. In the absence of central lymph node metastasis, it is worth addressing whether patients with high calcitonin can undergo total thyroidectomy and bilateral central lymph node dissection without bilateral lateral neck lymph node dissection.
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