Papillary Thyroid CarcinomawithinThyroglossal Duct Cyst: Case Series and Literature Review

The thyroid gland arises from the foramen cecum and descends in the neck to its final resting place in the pretracheal space. An anomaly in this descent might leave space in the tract, which leads to the formation of the thyroglossal duct cyst (TGDC). It is estimated that around 7% of the adult population have a persistent duct, therefore, leading to the formation of TGDC. This cyst is lined by squamous or pseudo stratified ciliated columnar epithelium. The cyst might also contain some remnants of ectopic thyroid gland, which is normally found in the cyst wall. The TGDC tends to get infected and lead to swelling and discomfort in the anterior neck. In the cases left untreated, recurrent infections can lead to sinus or fistula formation. The definitive treatment for TGDC is surgery. Sistrunk operation is performed to remove the TGDC and its tract.1 In very rare instances, the histopathology of the specimen reveals thyroid cancer, particularly papillary thyroid carcinoma. There have been around 278 reported cases of malignancy associated with TGDCs. We report two such cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma arising from a TGDC.