Open AccessFine-needle aspiration cytology of isolated skull nodule: Unfolding the clinical spectrum
Author(s) -
Puneet Gupta,
Minakshi Bhardwaj
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
indian journal of pathology and microbiology/indian journal of pathology and microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.217
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 0974-5130
pISSN - 0377-4929
DOI - 10.4103/0377-4929.188133
Subject(s) - medicine , metastasis , nodule (geology) , skull , lung , thyroid , pathology , thyroid carcinoma , brain metastasis , fine needle aspiration , bone metastasis , radiology , cancer , biopsy , surgery , biology , paleontology
Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) has been classified as either minimally invasive or widely invasive carcinoma and shows a propensity for blood-borne metastasis. Most common sites of metastasis are lung and bone followed by brain, liver, and skin. Minimally invasive FTC (MIFTC) is characterized by limited capsular and/or vascular invasion with good long-term outcomes, some cases of which show a poor prognosis because of severe distant metastasis. Skull metastasis in adults commonly arises from the lung, breast, and prostate and uncommonly from the thyroid. In our case, fine-needle aspiration cytology of isolated skull nodule was a reliable tool in the diagnosis of metastasis and suggesting the primary in thyroid thereby prompting early workup of a patient. The case is unique since it represents the rare disseminated metastasis from MIFTC with incomplete capsular penetration alone without angioinvasion that can behave as aggressively as a widely invasive FTC.