2025 Volume 118 Issue 1 Pages 55-60
The most important differential diagnoses in patients presenting with cystic cervical lymph node metastasis are human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma. The diagnostic criteria for follicular thyroid carcinoma are histological confirmation of at least one of capsular invasion, vascular invasion, or metastasis outside the thyroid gland, and cell atypia has no role in distinguishing between benign and malignant disease. We report a case of follicular nodular disease in a cervical lymph node that required to be differentiated from cervical lymph node metastasis secondary to papillary or follicular thyroid carcinoma.
A 35-year-old man with bilateral thyroid tumors and cystic lymphadenopathy of the left neck was referred to our department. We performed left neck dissection and total thyroidectomy, and considered that the patient may have had cervical lymph node metastasis from follicular nodular disease. Since the case was diagnosed as a case of follicular thyroid carcinoma by definition, close follow-up is required.
