Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Patients with either papillary thyroid carcinoma or melanoma have an increased risk of developing the other cancer as a second primary malignant neoplasm. We report a rare case of malignant melanoma (CM) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) that were diagnosed and treated simultaneously.

Observation: We report a case about a 46-year-old male, in whom examination of a skin biopsy that was obtained from a lesion in the right big toe revealed the lesion to be consistent with malignant melanoma. The patient underwent radical inguinal node dissection upon the detection of malignant melanoma metastasis to the sentinel lymph node. Papillary thyroid carcinoma was then diagnosed, revealed by a solitary nodule and a total thyroidectomy was indicated. High-dose followed by moderate-dose interferon-α therapy for the treatment of malignant melanoma were administred. The patient also received concurrent radioactive iodine therapy for the treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma, at the same time as the interferon therapy. The two primary tumors of the patient were treated successfully. During therapy, no serious side-effects were observed.

Conclusion: Malignant melanoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma may occur concurrently, although this is rarely observed. More studies are needed to better define the associated genetic predisposition between PTC and CM.