Tumors Metastatic to Thyroid Neoplasms: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Metastasis into a thyroid neoplasm—tumor-to-tumor metastasis—is exceedingly rare. We describe the 28th documented case of a tumor metastatic to a thyroid neoplasm and review the literature on tumor-to-tumor metastasis involving a thyroid neoplasm as recipient. All cases showed a recipient thyroid neoplasm with an abrupt transition to a morphologically distinct neoplasm. Metastasis into primary thyroid neoplasm was synchronous in 33% of cases and metachronous in 67%. Follicular adenoma was the most common recipient thyroid neoplasm overall (16/28), and papillary thyroid carcinoma was the most common malignant recipient neoplasm (9/28). Of the 9 recipient papillary carcinomas, 6 were follicular variants. Renal cell carcinoma was the most common neoplasm to metastasize to a primary thyroid neoplasm (9/28), followed by lung (6/28), breast (5/28), and colon (3/28) carcinoma. Tumor-to-tumor metastasis should be considered whenever a dimorphic pattern is encountered in a thyroid tumor.