1995 Volume 34 Issue 4 Pages 692-697
The authors report the case of a 67-year-old woman with thyroglossal duct carcinoma which was successfully diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration cytology before surgery. The patient had noticed a small nodule in the anterior portion of the neck two years previously. She did not seek medical advice because there was no pain. Subsequently, the nodule enlarged rapidly and she consulted the Kobe West City Hospital. She was diagnosed as having a thyloglossal duct cyst. Fine-needle aspiration of the cyst revealed the presence of malignant cells with intranuclear cytoplasmic inclusions indicating papillary carcinoma. The tumor and regional lymph nodes were resected by the Sistrunk method. The tumor was about 6cm in diameter and elastic hard. The surface was smooth. The cutsurface showed a cyst which contained a papillary tumor. The tumor was histologically diagnosed as a papillary carcinoma. Thyroglossal duct carcinoma has been reported to occur in 1.61% of thyroglossal duct cysts. Our case is the 26 th case reported in Japan. It is very important to identify malignant changes in thyroglossal duct cysts before surgery. However, radiological examination rarely reveals these changes. This report suggests the usefulness of fine-needle aspiration cytology for identifying malignant changes in thyroglossal ducts before surgery.
