Papillary thyroid carcinoma
Papillary thyroid cancer or papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most common type of thyroid cancer, representing 75 percent to 85 percent of all thyroid cancer cases. It occurs more frequently in women and presents in the 20–55 year age group.
It usually presents with a good prognosis, because it has an indolent nature, remains in the intrathyroidal region, and tends to locally metastasize to regional lymph nodes.
Lung, mediastinum, and bone are the most common sites for distant metastases, and account for 1% to 7% of patients with PTC.
The follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (FV-PTC) often follows nodal spread, and hematogenous spread is rare.
A 77-year male presented to the Neurosurgery Outpatient Clinic with complaints and examination findings of spinal cord compression (SCC) by a thoracic spinal metastases at the 11th thoracic vertebra (T11). Subtotal resection, thoracic corpectomy with cage reconstruction, laminectomy, and posterior spinal stabilization were performed. The patient, whose pathology result suggested follicular carcinoma metastases, underwent total thyroidectomy two months after spinal surgery. The pathology of the thyroid was compatible with FV-PTC. Even four years after the total thyroidectomy, the neurological status of the patient was still stable and neither tumoral recurrence nor a new metastases was detected. In the literature, the number of cases with FV-PTC presenting with SCC due to spinal metastases is limited 1).