Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes 2014; 122(05): 273-276
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1372623
Article
© J. A. Barth Verlag in Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Metastases of Non-Thyroidal Tumors to the Thyroid Gland: A Regional Survey in Middle Franconia

M. Cordes
1   Radiologisch Nuklearmedizinisches Zentrum, Nürnberg, Germany
2   Department of Radiology, Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland
4   Projektgruppe Schilddrüsentumore, Tumorzentrum Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
,
T. Kuwert
3   Nuklearmedizinische Klinik, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen Germany
4   Projektgruppe Schilddrüsentumore, Tumorzentrum Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

received 25 November 2013
first decision 18 February 2014

accepted 25 March 2014

Publication Date:
16 May 2014 (online)

Abstract

Objective: Metastases of non-thyroidal tumors to the thyroid gland are infrequently diagnosed in the clinical environment. In autopsy studies, however, metastases to the thyroid gland have a frequency of 1.25–24%. The aim of this investigation was to explore the primary tumor and latency of diagnosis in patients who were diagnosed with metastases to the thyroid gland in 70 institutions associated to a scientific board in Middle Franconia during a 12 year period.

Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

Patients: After a clinical data base research, 35 patients (21 male, 14 female) with a histological diagnosis of a secondary thyroid malignancy were identified between 2002 and 2013. The mean age of the patients at diagnosis of the metastasis was x=68.2 years (median: 70, standard deviation SD=± 8.4, range 46–85 years). The majority of the patients had metastases from renal cell carcinomas (n=19). In the other patients metastases from gastrointestinal carcinomas (n=2), bronchial carcinomas (n=3), malignant melanomas (n=3), sarcomas (n=2), and other tumors (n=6) were diagnosed. The time interval between the diagnosis of the primary tumor and the metastasis to the thyroid gland was different for patients with metastases from renal cell carcinomas and non-renal cell carcinomas (p<0.001, chi-test).

Conclusions: In agreement with previous studies, the majority of metastases to the thyroid gland derive from renal cell carcinomas. In patients with non-renal malignancies, metastases to the thyroid gland are diagnosed simultaneously with the primary tumor to a higher proportion compared with metastasis from renal malignancies.

 
  • References

  • 1 Nakhjavani MK, Gharib H, Goellner JR et al. Metastasis to the thyroid gland. Cancer 1997; 79: 574-578
  • 2 Schmid KW, Hittmair A, Ofner C et al. Metastatic tumors in fine needle aspiration biopsy of the thyroid. Acta Cytol 1991; 35: 722-724
  • 3 Chung AY, Tran TB, Brumond KT et al. Metastases to the thyroid: A review of the literature from the Last Decade. Thyroid 2012; 22: 258-268
  • 4 Shimaoka K, Sokal JE, Pickren JW. Metastatic neoplasms in the thyroid gland. Pathological and clinical findings. Cancer 1962; 15: 557-565
  • 5 Calzolari F, Sartori PV, Talarico C et al. Surgical treatment of intrathyroid metastases: Preliminary results of a multicentric study. Anticancer Res 2008; 28: 2885-2888
  • 6 Hacker U, Lenz G, Brehm G et al. Metastases of a rectal adenocarcinoma to the thyroid gland: diagnostic and therapeutic implications. Anticancer Res 2003; 23: 4973-4976
  • 7 Fletcher CDM, Unni KK, Mertens F. World Health Organization Classification of Tumours. Pathology and Genetics of tumours of soft tissue and bones. IARC Press Lyon 2002;
  • 8 Yang M, Wang W, Zhang C. Thyroid gland metastasis arising from breast cancer: A case report. Oncology Letters 2013; (05) 1836-1838
  • 9 Heffess CS, Wenig BM, Thompson LD. Metastatic renal cell carcinoma to the thyroid gland: A clinicopathologic study of 36 cases. Cancer 2002; 1869-1878