Abstract
We report here the rare case of an occult medullary thyroid carcinoma which was found in a metastatic right maxillary sinus tumor.
A 47 year-old man had complained of a right maxillary tumor for 2 months. An open biopsy of the right maxillary sinus tumor was performed, and it was diagnosed histopathologically as a squamous cell carcinoma. Irradiation, chemotherapy, a right total maxillectomy and a neck dissection were then performed. Soon after the surgery, multiple systemic metastases were detected, and he died of a hepatic coma. An autopsy of the patient showed that the first diagnosis was actually a metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma, and that the primary thyroid tumor had been overlooked. The occult type of thyroid carcinoma is also discussed.
