A 24-year-old female patient with parathyroid carcinoma, the rarest endocrine malignancy, had two pregnancies. In the first pregnancy, she had severe nausea and fatigue. Hypercalcemia and hyperparathyroidism were diagnosed in the postpartum period. Hyperemesis gravidarum masked a diagnosis of hypercalcemia. Neck ultrasound and Tc-99m sestamibi found an enlarged lower right parathyroid gland. The gland was surgically removed, and an initial pathology report described atypical adenoma. Shortly afterward, she became pregnant again. During the second pregnancy, her calcium level was frequently controlled but was always in the normal range. Normocalcemia is explained by the specific physiology of pregnancy accompanied by hemodilution, hypoalbuminemia and maternal hypercalciuria (mediated by increased glomerular filtration). During lactation, calcium levels rose, and a new neck ultrasound showed a solitary mass in the area of prior surgery and an enlarged pretracheal lymph node. Fine needle aspiration of the solitary mass and node showed parathyroid carcinoma cells. The tumor mass was resected en bloc with the contiguous tissues and surrounding lymph nodes (pathology report; parathyroid carcinoma with metastases). Over the next five years, four consecutive surgeries were performed to remove malignant parathyroid tissue, lymph nodes and local metastases. Following the surgical procedures, no hypocalcemia was observed. More serious hypercalcemia recurred; the calcium level was difficult to control with a combination of pamidronate, cinacalcet and loop diuretic. No elements of multiple endocrine neoplasia were present.

BackgroundLow iodine diet (LID) is recommended in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer before radioiodine administration. Patients with increased thyroglobulin (Tg) level, but negative 131I whole body scan present diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma. This study was designed to evaluate the benefit of a two-week LID in patients with elevated serum Tg levels and negative 131I whole body scans.Patients and methods.For the impact assessment of two-week LID on radioiodine tissue avidity, radioiodine scans before and after LID were compared. Sixteen patients with serum Tg > 2 μg/L, negative Tg-antibodies, and negative radioiodine scans underwent two-week LID before the 131I administration. Fourteen patients underwent diagnostic scanning and two patients received radioiodine therapy. Iodine concentration in the morning urine specimens were measured in each patient, a day before and 15th day after starting LID.ResultsFollowing self-managed LID, patients were able to significantly reduce their iodine body content by 50% (range 28–65%, p<0,001). 13 patients (82%) accomplished mild iodine deficiency (50-99 μg/L) and one patient (6%) achieved targeted moderate iodine deficient state (<50 μg/L). All diagnostic post-LID scans were negative. Both post-therapy 131I scans showed radioiodine accumulation outside of normal 131I distribution (neck region and diffuse hepatic uptake). This study demonstrated that two-week LID is effective way to decrease total body iodine content, although without a visible effect on post-LID diagnostic 131I scans.ConclusionsA more stringent dietary protocol and longer iodine restriction period are probably needed to achieve targeted moderate iodine deficiency in patients preparing for 131I administration. This might result in higher radioiodine avidity of thyroid remnant/metastases.

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showed extensive intraluminal mass in the pulmonary trunk and left pulmonary artery, diagnosed as massive pulmonary embolism. Since there was no clinical improvement after anticoagulant therapy, CT pulmonary angiography was repeated (Figure 1), and with no change observed in the intraluminal filling defect in pulmonary trunk, the possibility of tumor was raised. For further evaluation of a possible malignancy, F-18 FDG PET/CT was performed. It showed increased FDG uptake, suspicious for an aggressive tumor, in the intraluminal lesion of the pulmonary trunk and along the wall of the left pulmonary artery (Figure 2). There was no extrathoracic abnormality seen on PET/CT scan. Histopathological finding after complete pulmonary artery resection and left pneumonectomy showed a 9 cm long high grade undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma. No metastases were found in the parenchyma of the left lung. Three months after diagnosis, the patient was doing well and was receiving adjuvant chemotherapy treatment consisting of gemcitabine/docetaxel combination.