Significance of incidental detection of filariasis on aspiration smears: A case series

Filariasis is a major public health problem in tropical and subtropical countries including India. Although there are reports of incidentally diagnosed cases of lymphatic filariasis in the existing literature, the significance of this finding needs to be summarised in one place. The association of filariasis with neoplasms is still debatable. For this series, cases diagnosed as filariasis on aspiration cytology (with or without coexistent pathology) over a period of 1 year were retrieved. The cases with a clinical suspicion of filariasis were excluded. Hence, five cases with incidental diagnosis of filariasis on aspiration cytology were included. The site of aspiration included one case each of thyroid, breast, bone marrow, cervical lymph node, and subcutaneous nodule. Of these, three cases showed microfilariae, one showed only adult female worm while one showed both microfilariae and adult worm. Two cases did not show any inflammatory response while three cases showed a variable inflammatory reaction. Only one case (thyroid aspirate) had a coexistent pathology (colloid goitre). Filariasis may be detected in a clinically unsuspected case, especially in an endemic zone. The spectrum of host response may vary from no reaction to a marked inflammatory response. The entire spectrum of changes should be kept in mind while practicing cytopathology in an endemic area. In such situations, a high index of suspicion and careful screening of cytology smears are keys to a correct diagnosis. At the same time, keen search for a coexisting pathology, benign or malignant, is also mandatory. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Occult thyroid carcinoma: a rare case report and review of literature

Occult thyroid carcinoma is very common in the clinic and is generally divided into four groups. Here, we proposed two types of occult thyroid carcinoma as the fifth group. The first type was locoregional lymph node metastases from thyroid carcinoma, and the second type was distant organ metastases from thyroid carcinoma. The unique aspect of the fifth group was that the primary carcinoma of the fifth group was not finally found by pathological examination. To better understand the fifth group, we reported a typical case. Furthermore, we discussed the diagnostic criteria and procedures and the management of the fifth group of occult thyroid carcinoma.     

Familial non-medullary thyroid cancer: an update on the genetic and pathologic features

Well differentiated thyroid carcinoma is one of the most increasingly prevalent cancers, and while many are sporadic, some are inherited. These heritable thyroid cancers are grouped as familial non-medullary thyroid carcinoma (FNMTC) and represent approximately 5–10% of non-medullary thyroid carcinomas. While the group of FNMTC is quite heterogeneous, an ever increasing number of attributable genetic changes have been described. In addition to the classic, non-syndromic FNMTC there are also several well defined and characterized genetic syndromes with thyroid cancer as a component. This review will provide an update on the current molecular understanding of both syndromic and non-syndromic heritable thyroid cancer.     

Multifocality predicts poor outcome of patients with insular thyroid cancer: a clinicopathological study

Insular thyroid carcinoma (ITC) is a rare type of thyroid malignancy whose aggressiveness and propensity to local recurrence differentiate it from other thyroid malignancies. However, data pertaining to its clinical characteristics is still lacking. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed 10 ITC patients treated and followed in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital during Apr 2007 to Aug 2010, and compared the clinical and pathological characteristics and long-term follow-up with 2220 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). These ten ITC cases comprised 7 women and 3 men, of whom 6 patients are multifocal ITC (mITC) and showed cervical lymph node metastasis to the lateral compartment, while the other 4 solitary ITC (sITC) had regional metastasis confined to level VI or even no cervical metastasis. The ITC group had more frequent retrosternal metastasis (40% vs. 7.5%), recurrent laryngeal nerve invasion (40% vs. 4.4%), esophageal invasion (50% vs. 1.9%), a higher proportion of distant metastasis (50% vs. 3.2%), and vascular invasion (50% vs. 1.0%). While the presence of lymph node metastasis showed no significant difference. Interestingly, although patients with ITC are lacking in number to perform survival analysis, we still noticed that all the four sITC patients (4/4, 100%) have survived much longer (at least 45 months) than those who have multinodularity (mITC, 5/6, 83.3%). Our results indicated that ITC is an aggressive disease and the presence of multifocality might be a risk factor for long time survival of ITC patients.     

Total thyroidectomy as the single surgical option for benign and malignant thyroid disease: a surgical challenge

Introduction

Total thyroidectomy has been the treatment of choice for patients with malignant thyroid disease. However, the efficacy and safety of this procedure for patients with benign disease is still a matter of debate. The aim of this study is to show that total thyroidectomy can be safely performed for both malignant and benign disease.

Material and methods

A retrospective study on 216 patients was conducted. Once an indication for surgery was established, our single surgical treatment was total thyroidectomy. Age, sex, nature of thyroid disease, final pathology and postoperative complications were recorded.

Results

For both benign and malignant disease, total thyroidectomy resulted in no permanent laryngeal nerve injury and no permanent hypoparathyroidism. Temporary laryngeal nerve palsy occurred in 0.9% and 3% of patients with benign and malignant disease respectively (p = 0.245). Six percent of patients with benign and 10.0% of patients with malignant thyroid disease suffered temporary hypoparathyroidism (p = 0.280). Immediate reoperation for postoperative hemorrhage was performed in 1.7% of patients with benign disease and in 1.0% of patients with malignancy with an uneventful outcome (p = 0.650).

Conclusions

When performed by surgeons experienced in endocrine surgery, total thyroidectomy may be considered as the treatment of choice for both malignant and benign thyroid disease requiring surgical treatment. Total thyroidectomy virtually eliminates the requirement of completion thyroidectomy for incidentally diagnosed thyroid carcinoma and significantly reduces the rate of reoperation for recurrent disease, as it provides an immediate and permanent cure for all benign thyroid diseases, with a low incidence of postoperative complications.     

Increased incidence of malignancy in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism

Background/aimPrimary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a disease that is diagnosed more frequently and generally in the asymptomatic period, with widely available biochemical tests. Evidence suggesting an association between PHPT and malignancy risk is increasing. Clarification of this association will be useful in PHPT for malignancy screening and management of patients with PHPT. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of cancer in PHPT patients.Materials and methodsA total of 775 PHPT patients were included in the retrospective study. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data of the patients were evaluated retrospectively.ResultsMalignancy was detected in 128 (16.50%) of 775 PHPT patients (female/male: 625/150). The mean age at diagnosis of PHPT was 57.99 ± 10.86 years, and the mean age at diagnosis of malignancy was 57.46 ± 11.17 years. Of the 128 patients with malignancy, 53 (41.40%) were diagnosed in the same year as PHPT. In terms of malignancy types, 51 (6.50%) of 775 PHPT patients had thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer was followed by breast cancer (2.30%) and stomach cancer (1%) in order of frequency.ConclusionWe think that PHPT patients should be examined more carefully in terms of cancer risk, especially thyroid cancer. More comprehensive studies are needed to clarify the relationship between PHPT and cancer.     

化疗对乳腺癌患者甲状腺功能或结构的影响

目的探讨化疗对乳腺癌患者甲状腺功能或结构的近期影响。方法选取蚌埠医学院第一附属医院于2017年3月至2018年12月收治的40例女性初治原发性乳腺癌患者,检测并比较化疗后2和4疗程与化疗前的甲状腺功能5项(包括T3、T4、FT3、FT4和TSH)及其结构的变化。结果乳腺癌患者化疗2和4疗程后T4、FT4水平明显低于化疗前(P<0.05);患者化疗4疗程后甲状腺TI-RADS分级及其结构异常的发生率较化疗前均明显升高(P<0.05)。结论化疗后近期可引起或加重乳腺癌患者甲状腺功能或结构的异常,适时进行检查并干预可防止病情进一步发展,具有重要的临床意义。     

NPC2 expression in thyroid tumors and its possible diagnostic utility

Histopathologic diagnosis of thyroid lesions is sometimes difficult and may require the assistance of immunohistochemistry. Currently-used immunohistochemical biomarkers share the weakness of staining both papillary thyroid carcinoma and other non-papillary thyroid lesions. We examined NPC2 as an immunohistochemical marker in various thyroid lesions to determine the subcellular localization of the immunohistochemistry signal and evaluated the value of NPC2 as a diagnostic marker of papillary thyroid carcinoma. NPC2 immunostaining was performed on various thyroid tumors and tumor-like lesions. The immunostaining revealed significantly different patterns for papillary carcinomas and the other lesions. Papillary carcinomas exhibited moderate to strong granular cytoplasmic staining, often with basal membranous accentuation. In contrast, the other lesions showed mostly weak cytoplasmic staining, often with apical membranous accentuation. The subcellular localization of NPC2 provided insight into contrasting histopathologic morphology and reversed cellular polarity between the papillary patterns of papillary carcinomas and the follicular patterns of non-papillary carcinoma lesions. The diagnostic characteristics of NPC2 immunohistochemistry for non-follicular papillary carcinomas versus non-papillary carcinoma lesions were a sensitivity of 97.3%, specificity of 96.9%, positive predictive value of 94.7%, and negative predictive value of 98.4%. Significant differences were present between the two staining patterns in papillary carcinoma relative to mean age, nodal metastasis, and follicular and non-follicular variants (P = 0.02, P = 0.03, and P = 0.000, respectively). In conclusion, our evaluation of the subcellular localization of NPC2 using immunohistochemistry demonstrated possible value of NPC2 as a biomarker and provided insight into the morphologic characteristics of papillary carcinoma.     

Association between microRNA polymorphisms and papillary thyroid cancer susceptibility

Objectives: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common subtype of thyroid cancer, which accounts for 80-90% of all thyroid cancer cases. Though the pathological mechanism hasn’t been fully understood, it is reported that both environmental and genetic factor may contribute to the PTC susceptibility. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules which function as the suppressors to participate in a variety of biological processes. Accumulating evidence suggests that polymorphisms of miRNAs were associated with the tumorigenesis of various cancers, including PTC. In this article, we focus on the association between four common microRNA polymorphisms (miR-146a, miR-608, miR-933, and miR-149) and PTC risk in a Han Chinese population. Methods: In this case-control study, we recruited 1,398 participants in total, including 369 PTC patients, 278 patients with thyroid benign nodules (BN) and 751 normal controls. The miRNAs polymorphisms were genotyped and analyzed by using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The odd ratios and their 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated to evaluate the association between miRNAs polymorphisms and PTC risk. Furthermore, a meta-analysis based on previous studies was conducted to comprehensively assess the diagnostic performance of miR-146a in the PTC diagnosis. Results: The miR-146a polymorphisms were shown to be significantly correlated with elevated risk of PTC under the heterozygous, homozygous, dominant and allelic models by comparing the genotype distribution between PTC cases and healthy controls, as well as between PTC cases and BN cases. However, the result of meta-analysis showed no significant association between miR-146a polymorphisms and PTC risk. Conclusions: Our study indicated that the miR-146a polymorphism was significantly associated with PTC risk. In contrast, meta-analysis revealed no evidence of association between miR-146a variants and PTC risk. Further studies are required to elucidate the role of miR-146a in the etiology of PTC.     

Prevalence and clonality of synchronous primary carcinomas in the bladder and prostate

Incidental prostate adenocarcinoma (IPCa) has been frequently discovered during postoperative histopathological evaluation of radical cystoprostatectomy specimens in patients with bladder cancer (BCa). However, there is currently no conclusive study addressing the clinical significance of IPCa and the clonal relatedness of IPCa and BCa. Here, we performed a retrospective single‐center review of 919 BCa cases and an additional meta‐analysis including a total of 19 868 individuals who underwent radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. IPCa, mostly clinically insignificant, was detected in 67 of 919 BCa patients (7.3%) and was significantly associated with greater age. In the meta‐analysis, a lower prevalence was observed in Asian than in non‐Asian countries (19% versus 32%), presumably due to their different rates of prostate cancer occurrence. Whole‐exome sequencing on matched BCa and IPCa samples unambiguously revealed independent clonal origins of the synchronous tumors. BCa and IPCa lesions from each patient displayed distinctive genomic abnormalities and largely unrelated mutational signatures of single nucleotide variations, indicating disparate mutational processes underlying bladder and prostate oncogenesis. These findings provide important insights into the incidental nature of prostate adenocarcinoma in patients with bladder cancer, and suggest that the two concurrent diseases can be managed separately. Copyright © 2017 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

^99Tc^m-MIBI亲肿瘤显像对甲状腺癌的诊断价值

目的 探讨99Tcm-MIBI显像在甲状腺癌诊断中的价值.方法 对52例99TcmO4-甲状腺显像为"冷"结节的患者行99Tcm-MIBI显像.患者均行外科手术治疗,并作病理检查.计算其10 min和60 min患侧/健侧摄取放射性比值(T/N),分析假阳性和假阴性.结果 甲状腺癌组10 min和60 minT/N值分别为1.87±0.57和1.61±0.45,而甲状腺良性病变组分别为0.79±0.22和0.89±0.25,两组两时相T/N值比较均有显著性差异(P＜0.01).99Tcm-MIBI显像对甲状腺癌诊断的灵敏度、特异性和准确性分别为77.8%、82.4%和80.8%.结论 甲状腺"冷"结节行99Tcm-MIBI显像对于甲状腺癌的诊断具有较高的临床参考价值.     

Molecular pathology of thyroid tumours of follicular cells: a review of genetic alterations and their clinicopathological relevance

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Knowledge of the molecular pathology of thyroid tumours originating from follicular cells has greatly advanced in the past several years. Common molecular alterations, such as BRAF p.V600E, RAS point mutations, and fusion oncogenes (RET–PTC being the prototypical example), have been, respectively, associated with conventional papillary carcinoma, follicular‐patterned tumours (follicular adenoma, follicular carcinoma, and the follicular variant of papillary carcinoma/non‐invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary‐like nuclear features), and with papillary carcinomas from young patients and arising after exposure to ionising radiation, respectively. The remarkable correlation between genotype and phenotype shows how specific, mutually exclusive molecular changes can promote tumour development and initiate a multistep tumorigenic process that is characterised by aberrant activation of mitogen‐activated protein kinase and phosphoinositide 3‐kinase–PTEN–AKT signalling. Molecular alterations are becoming useful biomarkers for diagnosis and risk stratification, and as potential treatment targets for aggressive forms of thyroid carcinoma. What follows is a review of the principal genetic alterations of thyroid tumours originating from follicular cells and of their clinicopathological relevance.     

Prevalence of thyroid cancer at a medical screening center: pathological features of screen-detected thyroid carcinomas

Purpose

To assess the incidence of thyroid malignancy in an adult population screened by high-resolution ultrasonography at a medical screening center and to compare the clinical and pathological features of screen-detected thyroid carcinomas to symptomatic overt thyroid carcinomas.

Materials and Methods

We calculated the prevalence of screen-detected thyroid cancer at a medical screening center using high-resolution ultrasonography and fine needle aspiration. We then compared the clinical and pathological features of screen-detected thyroid cancers (n = 46) to clinical symptomatic thyroid cancers (n = 157). We evaluated age, gender, size, perithyroidal extension, lymphovascular extension, stage, histological lymph node metastasis, and the type of cancer. We also compared the above findings of micropapillary carcinomas to papillary thyroid carcinomas that were larger than 1 cm in diameter.

Results

Screen-detected thyroid nodule patients were 2,747 (37%) of 7,491 patients. Nodules selected for fine needle aspiration were 658 and cytology confirmed malignancy were 79 (12%) nodules. When screen-detected thyroid cancers (n = 46) were compared to symptomatic overt thyroid cancers (n = 157), only statistically significant factor was size (p = 0.002). Papillary thyroid carcinomas that were larger than 1 cm had more frequent capsular invasion (p = 0.000) and a higher stage (p = 0.027), and a higher prevalence of lymph node metastases (p = 0.002).

Conclusion

Screen-detected thyroid cancers should be managed as same as symptomatic thyroid cancers in respect to size, and an assessment should strictly be based on the ultrasound features and fine needle aspiration biopsy findings.     

超声造影在甲状腺良恶性结节鉴别诊断中的应用

目的探讨实时灰阶超声造影在甲状腺结节良恶性鉴别诊断中的应用价值。方法 85例甲状腺结节患者(选取85个结节),其中男性29例,女性56例;年龄21～78岁,平均年龄42.5岁。采用声诺维(SonoVue)行超声造影检查,造影过程中观察结节的增强特点,比较增强模式在良恶性鉴别诊断中的价值。结果 85个结节中良性52个,恶性33个。结节超声造影表现为5种增强模式(弥漫性),即无增强、斑点样增强、均匀低增强、均匀高增强、均匀等增强。37个结节性甲状腺肿中,16个为均匀低增强,11个为均匀等增强,3个为均匀高增强,5个为环状增强,2个为斑点样增强中不均匀增强。9个腺瘤中6个为均匀高增强,2个为均匀低增强,1个为均匀等增强。26个甲状腺乳头状癌中15个不均匀增强,8个均匀低增强,1个均匀等增强,2个均匀高增强。6个滤泡性腺癌,4个为不均匀增强,均匀低增强和等增强各1个。不均匀增强特征对甲状腺恶性结节诊断的灵敏度、特异度和准确率分别为57.5%、94.0%和79.5%。环状增强对结节性甲状腺肿有较高的诊断特异度,而均匀高增强对甲状腺腺瘤有较高的诊断特异度。结论甲状腺良恶性结节的超声造影特征存在差异,不均匀增强对甲状腺恶性结节有较高的诊断价值。     

甲状腺切除术后应用甲状腺平面显像评估残余甲状腺:与治疗剂量131I扫描的对比

目的:我国常用^99mTc甲状腺扫描评估甲状腺癌术后残余甲状腺大小,本文拟对甲状腺扫描与治疗剂量的¹³¹I扫描进行比较分析。方法:148例（男51,女97）2年内就诊甲状腺癌术后病人入组,年龄（47.0±13.3）岁,2名核医学科医师独立、盲法阅片,采用5分法计分。统计学分析采用秩相关研究,相关系数采用t检验进一步比较。结果:69/148（46.6%）两种显像结果得分一致,79（53.4%）¹³¹I扫描得分高于甲扫。甲扫及¹³¹I扫描评分结果与甲状腺激素水平均相关（P<0.001）,且相关系数间甲扫与T₃、T₄相关程度更高（t₁=-1.933,P=0.028;t₂=-2.788,P=0.003）。结论:^99mTc甲状腺平面显像可作为术后残余甲状腺的评估方法,但¹³¹I扫描显示范围更大,两者与甲状腺激素水平均相关,但甲扫与其相关性可能更高。     

Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis of the Lung and Thyroid, Co-Existing with Papillary Thyroid Cancer

A 24-year-old man presented to our center with a huge goiter compressing his airway. He had a previous diagnosis of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) of the lung. Core needle biopsy was consistent with histiocytosis. Thyroidectomy was performed. A very invasive mass was encountered at the time of surgery. Histopathology result was consistent with an invasive papillary cancer of thyroid co-occurring with LCH. Although association of LCH with different malignancies has been reported, co-existing invasive papillary thyroid cancer and LCH is a rare combination.