Lateral neck ectopic thyroid carcinoma: Rare location for ectopic malignancy

Abstract

Lateral neck ectopic thyroid tissue remains a rare entity that can be affected by any lesion involving the gland. The origin of lateral neck ectopic thyroid carcinomas still debated between a metastatic disease secondary to thyroid primary tumor and primary malignancy on the ectopic tissue. Anyway, it should indicate an exploration of the gland. We report the case of a 36 years old female with one year history of hyperthyroidism who was admitted for multinodular grade II goiter with a firm mass in the left level II of the lateral neck. The thyroid scintigraphy demonstrated multiple functioning nodules corresponding to toxic multinodular goiter; in addition to two cold hypofunctional nodules. The cervical ultrasound showed a voluminous multinodular goiter classified as EU TIRADS 5. The surgical procedure exposed a multinodular mass, lateral to the internal jugular vein, with the appearance and structure of the thyroid gland and no connection to it. The thyroid gland was exposed next through a collar incision. Each mass was dissected and removed individually. The histopathology examination of the thyroid gland found papillary carcinoma extracapsular extension. The pathology results of the other mass reported multiple colloid nodules with cystic component, papillary in appearance, with the same cancer proliferation, compatible with ectopic thyroid tissue with papillary carcinoma. No lymph node tissue was found. The patient was sent for complementary RAItherapy. We report a rare case of lateral neck ectopic thyroid papillary carcinoma that supplements and supports the lacking literature data concerning the management of this rare entity.

An Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma of the Giant-Cell Type from a Mediastinal Ectopic Thyroid Gland

“…Multiple termini have been reported, including the lateral side of the neck, the sternocleidomastoid muscle, and the tongue. The most common ectopic cancer type is papillary thyroid carcinoma, which is consistent with the prevalence of papillary thyroid carcinoma in the thyroid [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. An excisional biopsy of the mediastinal mass was performed to confirm the diagnosis.…”

Diagnosis and treatment of ectopic thyroid carcinoma: A case report and literature review

“…It is still highly controversial whether prophylactic neck dissection or only therapeutic lymph node dissection should be performed in patients with ETC. We found that some scholars did not perform cervical lymph node dissection when removing the primary tumor lesions, and the patients still achieved long-term disease-free survival (41,42). The extent of lymph node dissection should be determined according to the specific body location and the pathological type of the tumor.…”