Pulmonary metastasis of a papillary thyroid carcinoma and primary lung adenocarcinoma: two coincident carcinomas at the same location

Diagn Pathol. 2013 Feb 16:8:26. doi: 10.1186/1746-1596-8-26.

Abstract

Tumor-to-tumor metastasis is a fairly rare phenomenon. The lung cancers are the most common donors, but are exceedingly rare as recipients. Here we report a case of a lung adenocarcinoma acting as the recipient of papillary thyroid carcinoma, with multiple spreading foci of the two cancers in the lung simultaneously. The morphology and immunohistochemistry (Napsin-A, Thyroglobulin) are very important in differential diagnosis of lung primary adenocarcinoma and metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Virtual slides: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/2069496615891134.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / chemistry
  • Adenocarcinoma / pathology*
  • Adenocarcinoma / surgery
  • Adenocarcinoma of Lung
  • Aged
  • Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases / analysis
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / analysis
  • Carcinoma / chemistry
  • Carcinoma / secondary*
  • Carcinoma / surgery
  • Carcinoma, Papillary
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Lung Neoplasms / chemistry
  • Lung Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Lung Neoplasms / surgery
  • Male
  • Multimodal Imaging
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Thyroglobulin / analysis
  • Thyroid Cancer, Papillary
  • Thyroid Neoplasms / chemistry
  • Thyroid Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Thyroid Neoplasms / surgery
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Thyroglobulin
  • Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases
  • NAPSA protein, human