Abstract
Thyroid metastasis is confirmed at autopsy in approximately 3% of patients with esophageal cancer. Such metastasis is regarded to indicate a terminal status of cancer, as it is often accompanied by multiple organ metastasis at detection and is rarely a target of treatment. We encountered a case of isolated thyroid metastasis of esophageal cancer that was curatively resected. The patient was a 57-year-old male who had undergone thoracoscopic subtotal esophagectomy for thoracic esophageal cancer at 53 years of age and was found to have a thyroid incidentaloma on postoperative follow-up CT. A cytological examination of samples obtained from this site demonstrated squamous cell carcinoma. A diagnosis of thyroid metastasis of esophageal cancer was made based on the patient’s clinical course, and he was curatively treated with right thyroid lobectomy.
