A Case of Metastatic Rectal Cancer from a Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Treated by Laparoscopic-assisted Anterior Resection

Abstract

A 64-year-old woman who had undergone right hemithyroidectomy for papillary thyroid cancer at the age of 46 years and total thyroidectomy for left cervical lymph node metastasis at the age of 52 years had been treated with thyroid stimulating hormone suppression therapy for lung metastasis since she was aged 57 years. She came to our hospital due to melena. Metastatic rectal cancer was diagnosed by colonoscopy and computed tomography. Because the papillary thyroid cancer was slow growing, we performed laparoscopic-assisted anterior resection to improve anemia in spite of multiple lung and right adrenal gland metastases. Papillary thyroid cancer typically has a favorable prognosis and metastasis to the rectum is extremely rare. We report a case of metastatic rectal cancer derived from a papillary thyroid cancer diagnosed preoperatively and resected by laparoscopy.