Diffuse Thyroid Enlargement Following Metastasis of Lung Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

A 55-year-old man presented with a rapidly enlarging thyroid. He had been diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma nine months earlier. Computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound (US) detected reticular cord-like structures, but no nodules, in the thyroid. A fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of the thyroid revealed thyroglobulin-negative adenocarcinoma cells, thus establishing the diagnosis of diffuse thyroid metastases of lung cancer. Moreover, the fluid demonstrated milky chyliform effusion. This case suggests that the presence of reticular cord-like structures on US and CT may be a key imaging finding for the clinical diagnosis of diffuse thyroid metastases and that chyliform effusion may contribute to rapid goiter formation.