Mucin in carcinomas of the thyroid

Abstract

One hundred forty-two cases of thyroid carcinomas were studied to assess the frequency with which mucinous deposits occur within the neoplastic cells. In contrast to the literature, which contains only a few scattered reports on this topic, the production of mucin by carcinomas of the thyroid was relatively frequently observed in our material. Almost one half of the cases displayed mucinous substances, which occurred in about 50% of the papillary and the medullary carcinomas, 35% of the follicular types, and about 21% of the anaplastic varieties. The amount of mucinous substances varied considerably: 28 cases were weakly positive, 30 cases were moderately positive, and 6 cases were strongly positive. These findings are discussed with respect to diagnostic and differential diagnostic problems, especially with respect to the interpretation of mucinous deposits that occur in metastatic carcinomata.

Histopathology of Thyroid Tumors. An Overview

“…Tumors with mucinous features: Mucosubstances have been detected in several thyroid tumors, either in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells or extracellulary 46,47 . Primary thyroid tumors that have been found to contain mucin include signet ring follicular adenoma, mucoepidermoid carcinoma and sclerosing mucoepidermoid carcinoma with eosinophilia, papillary, undifferentiated and medullary carcinoma 2 .…”

Mucinous carcinoma of thyroid gland. Report of a primary and a metastatic mucinous tumour from ovarian adenocarcinoma with immunohistochemical study and review of literature

“…Mucin production in thyroid gland is an unusual event but can occur in a wide variety of thyroid lesions (follicular neoplasm, papillary carcinoma, anaplastic and medullary carcinoma) [1,2,6,8,10]. Generally, in these cases, the tumour appears characterized by a pool of mucin, often extracellular and admixed with areas of typical thyroid carcinoma.…”

“…Mucinous thyroid tumours are very rare and sometimes can occur in association with a typical thyroid carcinoma (follicular and papillary) but does not represent a true primary thyroid carcinoma [1,2,6,8,10]. This latter is exceptionally rare, with only six cases reported in literature, and histologically are indistinguishable from mucinous carcinoma of others sites [3,5,7,9].…”

Thyroid Adenoma with Extensive Extracellular Mucin Deposition: Report of a Case

“…However, even in other pathological types (papillary, follicular, and anaplastic) of thyroid carcinoma, mucin substances may be commonly observed. 3,4 Oncocytic carcinoma of the thyroid gland, known as Hurthle-cell carcinoma, also shows mucin production. 5,6 Recently, the mucin gene (MUC1) has been recognized in papillary carcinoma, and MUC1 RNA was observed to be overexpressed in comparison to normal thyroid tissues.…”