ABSTRACT

Distant metastases of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) are rare and usually involve the lungs or the bones. Brain and mediastinal lymph node metastases from PTC simultaneously in the same patient are extremely rare, and usually have a very poor prognosis. We report a case with residual tall cell variant of PTC in isthmus localization detected with fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/ computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) as well as multiple cerebral, lung, bone and mediastinal / cervical lymph node metastases. Histopathologic confirmation was accurately obtained by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) and fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) for all disease sites.

Keywords: Tall cell variant, distant metastasis, 18F-FDG PET/CT, prognosis