ArticleHuman pathology2017
Metastatic thyroid carcinoma without identifiable primary tumor within the thyroid gland: a retrospective study of a rare phenomenon.
Article in Human pathology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Follicular-Patterned Lesions of the Thyroid Gland.Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc · 2026Review
- Article
- Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Without Identifiable Primary Tumor Within the Thyroid Gland, Presenting with Initial Lymph Node Metastasis Followed by Distant Peritoneal Metastasis: A Case Report of a Rare Phenomenon.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Without Intrathyroidal Primary: Case Report and Literature Review.Case reports in surgery · 2026Article
- Occult Thyroid Carcinoma Localized to Three Cervical Lymph Nodes Without Primary Origin in the Thyroid Gland: A Case Report.Case reports in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Review
- A lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma as a giant cervical cyst without a primary tumor in the thyroid gland: a case report.Thyroid research · 2025Article
- Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in the Lymph Nodes Without Identifiable Primary Tumor in the Thyroid.Cureus · 2025Article
- Regressed Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma with Anaplastic Transformation into Lymph Node Metastasis: Case Report with Review of the Literature.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Comparative Analysis of Metastatic Thyroid Carcinoma versus Ectopic Thyroid Carcinoma in Lateral Neck Masses without Identifiable Primary Thyroid Carcinoma.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Two Rare Cases of Metastatic Occult Thyroid Carcinoma Without Primary Cancer in the Thyroid Gland.Cureus · 2024Article
- Case report: Report of a rare encounter: metastasis of renal cell carcinoma to the thyroid.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Article
- The Significance of Unsampled Microscopic Thyroid Carcinomas in Multinodular Goiter.Endocrine pathology · 2023Article
- Ectopic papillary thyroid carcinoma mimicking distant metastatic tissue.The Journal of international medical research · 2022Article
- Papillary Thyroid Cancer Presenting with Incidental Skin Lesion: Critical Management of Distant Metastasis.Sisli Etfal Hastanesi tip bulteni · 2022Article
- Papillary thyroid carcinoma micro-deposits in cervical lymph nodes without intra-thyroid malignancy: A comment in consideration of the latest American Thyroid Association guidelines.Molecular and clinical oncology · 2021Article
- Ectopic Cervical Thyroid Tissue Affected by Fibrosing Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Mimicking Multifocal Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma-A Hard Lesson Learnt from an Unusual Case.Head and neck pathology · 2021Article
- Asian and Western practice in thyroid pathology: similarities and differences.Gland surgery · 2020Article
- Active surveillance for low-risk small papillary thyroid cancer in North American countries: past, present and future (bridging the gap between North American and Asian practices).Gland surgery · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) without an identifiable primary tumor despite extensive microscopic examination of the thyroid gland is a rare but true phenomenon.We retrieved 7 of such cases and described in detail the clinical and pathologic features of these tumors. BRAF V600E immunohistochemistry and Sequenom molecular profile were conducted in selected cases. All patients harbored metastatic disease in the central (n=3), lateral (n=3), or both neck compartments (n=1). The histotype of the metastatic disease was PTC (n=5), poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma in association with a PTC columnar variant (n=1), and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma in association with a PTC tall cell variant (n=1). Fibrosis was present in the thyroid of 5 patients. All patients with PTC were alive without evidence of recurrence. The 76-year-old patient with poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma did not recur and died of unknown causes. Finally, the patient with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma was alive with distant metastasis at last follow-up. The median follow-up for this cohort was 2.2years (range, 0.8-17). BRAF V600E was detected in 4 of 6 cases by immunohistochemistry. In conclusion, metastatic nodal disease without identifiable thyroid primary is a rare but real phenomenon of unknown mechanisms. Although most tumors are low grade and well differentiated, aggressive behavior due to poorly differentiated or anaplastic carcinoma can happen. Most cases are BRAF
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