Pancreatic metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma preoperatively diagnosed by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy: a case report with review of literatures

Pancreatic metastatic tumors from thyroid carcinoma are extremely rare. We report a case of an 80-year-old female with a pancreatic metastatic tumor derived from papillary thyroid carcinoma which was initially resected 158 months prior to detection of the metastatic pancreatic tumor. The patient has encountered cervical lymph-node metastasis on three occasions following the initial operation. Metastatic pancreatic lesions and cervical lymph nodes were first detected using 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography, and she was preoperatively diagnosed using endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy. A coin lesion, 10 mm in size, was detected in the left lung by chest computed tomography with no abnormal uptake in 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography. Distal pancreatectomy and cervical lymph-node dissection were performed. Adjuvant chemotherapy with weekly paclitaxel was administered because anaplastic transformation had been detected in one of the cervical lymph nodes. The patient eventually died from multiple lung metastases 11 months after removing the metastatic pancreatic lesion. We reported a rare case of a pancreatic metastatic tumor from thyroid carcinoma, and found that 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography and endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy are useful for preoperatively diagnosing tumors.