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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Avicenna J Med 2021; 11(02): 103-106
DOI: 10.4103/ajm.ajm_288_20
Case Report

Papillary thyroid carcinoma in a 5-year old child, mimicking lymphoma in presentation

Tariq N Aladily
Department of Pathology, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
,
Majd Khader
Department of Pathology, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
,
Nadwa Bustami
Department of Pathology, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
,
Osama A Samara
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
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Subject Editor: Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Abstract

Thyroid cancer is very rare in children and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) represents the most common type. Patients are frequently in the second decade of life and complain of painless enlargement of the gland. Pediatric PTC has unique clinicopathologic characteristics that make it different from the adult counterpart. The biologic behavior tends to be aggressive and patients frequently present with advanced disease. Herein, we report a case with an unusual presentation. A 5-year-old child manifested with fever, night sweats, cervical lymphadenopathy, and weight loss for 2 months. He also complained of mild cough and shortness of breath. Clinical suspicion of tuberculosis or lymphoma was raised, but laboratory workup was unremarkable. Cervical lymph node excision was done, and the histopathologic examination showed metastatic PTC. The patient underwent surgical and radioactive therapy and remained in complete remission for 5 years. Unfortunately, the disease ultimately relapsed with disseminated metastasis and the patient passed away.

Keywords

Lymphoma - papillary thyroid carcinoma - pediatric cancer - thyroid carcinoma - tuberculosis


Publication History

Article published online:
06 August 2021

© 2021. Syrian American Medical Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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