Abstract
Papillary thyroid carcinoma is a slow growing tumor with low metastatic potential.
The most frequent sites of distant metastases are lung and bone; less frequent sites
are brain, liver, kidney, and skin. Ovarian metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma
are exceptional. We describe a case of bilateral ovarian metastases from a papillary
thyroid carcinoma associated with autoimmune thyroiditis in a 38-year-old woman who
underwent thyroidectomy and cervical lymph-node dissection 7 years before, followed
by 948 mCi of 131I. A primary ovarian cancer could be excluded by the typical pathological
aspects of a papillary thyroid carcinoma in a context of an aggressive form of thyroid
cancer. On the other hand, the clinical history and the absence of normal thyroid
epithelium and teratomatous components could exclude a papillary thyroid carcinoma
arising in struma ovarii. This is a singular case of papillary thyroid carcinoma metastasizing
to the ovary, combined with an autoimmune thyroiditis.
Key words
Thyroid carcinoma - ovarian metastases - immunohistochemistry - thyroglobulin - TTF-1
- autoimmune thyroiditis
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Correspondence
E. Macchia
Dipartimento di Endocrinologia
Università di Pisa
Ospedale Cisanello
Via Paradisa 2
56124 Pisa
Italy
Phone: +39/050/99 50 13
Fax: +39/050/57 87 72
Email: emacchia@endoc.med.unipi.it
