Abstract
Pediatric thyroid gland carcinoma is uncommon, representing less than 1% of all thyroid cancer. We report cases of thyroid carcinoma in a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, both with dyspnea and lateral cervical tumors, and both found in computed tomography (CT) and fine-needle aspiration cytology. Lung metastasis was found in chest CT on presentation. Because both were in the bilateral cervix, we conducted total thyroidectomy and bilateral selective neck dissection level 2-6. Case 1 had recurrent laryngeal nerve and tracheal invasion. Radioactive iodine therapy was administered to both postperatively for lung metastasis. Children with well-differentiated papillary and follicular carcinoma are reported to have a substantially better prognosis than adults despite comparatively high regional and distant metastasis incidence. Appropriate diagnosis, surgical procedure choice, and careful follow-up are thus important in pediatric thyroid cancer.
