Three Cases of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

We report 3 cases of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma occurring between 1995 and 2009 and all featuring an enlarged anterior cervical mass.
The first case involved a 76-year-old woman whose clinical imaging findings strongly suggested thyroid gland malignancy, necessitating total thyroidectomy, neck dissection, and tracheostomy. The pathological diagnosis was anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Despite postoperative chemoradiotherapy, she died of cervical lymph node and lung metastasis 5 months after diagnosis.
Cases 2 and 3 involved a 63-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma based on fine-needle aspiration cytology findings. Both underwent total thyroidectomy, neck dissection, and tracheostomy and postoperative chemoradiotherapy but the second subject died 7 months after diagnosis due to multiple lung metastasis and the third subject 4 months after due to multiple lung and liver metastasis.
Successfully treating those with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma requires timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment based on accurately evaluating the subject background.