Subcutaneous Recurrences of Thyroid Cancer After Conventional Transcervical Thyroidectomy: A Case Report

Abstract

Metastatic subcutaneous implantation of the follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer is very rare. We present a 62-year-old woman with a history of follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer, who developed multiple asymptomatic subcutaneous nodules, after 5 years of initial thyroidectomy. Eventually, the subcutaneous nodules were diagnosed as tumor recurrence and completely excised. She has reportedly lived for more than 1 year, without signs of disease progression or recurrence. This case emphasizes the need for surgeons to take into account the tumor-free concept during the operation, and to a great extent prevent the occurrence of implantation recurrence.

Subcutaneous implantation of nodular goiter after transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach: A case study and review of literature

“…A comprehensive literature search on implantation of thyroid tissue secondary to thyroid procedures was performed in PubMed from January 1976 to September 2023. The keywords used were “thyroid,” “implantation,” “metastasis,” “thyroidectomy,” “extra‐thyroid,” “endoscopic surgery,” and “needle.” Finally, 29 relevant articles with 47 patients were identified 5–33 . The characteristics of the included studies had been summarized in Table 1.…”

Subcutaneous implantation of oncocytic thyroid cell aggregates nine years later from thyroidectomy. A case report

“…Subcutaneous colonization of thyroid tissue was described for the first time in 1976 [6] ; later there have been reports concerning the implantation of both benign and malignant pathologies, histotypes either papillary or follicular [2] , [3] , [7] , [8] . In particular, the review by Koller et al, which considered less than 50 cases of collected skin lesions (i.e.…”

“…Subcutaneous implantation of thyroid tissue, also called cutaneous thyromatosis or thyroidosis , is a rare occurrence, developing when the thyrocytes pass through the thyroid capsule to spread locally during thyroid surgery and diagnostic procedures. These lesions are usually localized in the head and neck region and described early following to a fine-needle aspiration biopsy throughout the length of the needle tract (thus causing the dissemination of cells during the needle withdrawal) or after thyroidectomy [1] , [2] , [3] . Recently, cases of subcutaneous implantation of thyroid tissue were observed even after endoscopic or robot-assisted procedures [4] , [5] .…”