Solitary skull metastasis from follicular thyroid carcinoma: a case report

Introduction: Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is the second most common malignant form of thyroid cancers. FTC is more common in women with a peak incidence in the fifth and sixth decades of life. Invasion into blood vessels may lead to distant metastasis to bone, lung, liver or elsewhere. FTC rarely manifests itself as a distant metastatic lesion, especially as solitary metastasis. Case report: Here we present a 65 years old woman with nodular goiter with cytologic diagnosis of adenomatous goiter. In follow up, she presented with a skull mass which had an osteolytic appearance in parietal bone. Biopsy from skull mass, showed metastasis from FTC. This diagnosis was confirmed in histologic examination of the thyroidectomy specimen. Conclusion: Thus, in approaching thyroid nodules, the limitations of fine needle aspiration-cytology in differentiation of follicular lesions must be remembered. Also in patients with nodular goiter and evidence of metastasis, possibility of thyroid carcinomas as primary origin should be considered