Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The discovery of thyroid cancer during surgery for another malignant disease of the upper aerodigestive tract is rare. We report the case of a man presenting squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the larynx associated with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Case presentation: A 68-year-old patient with history of cigarette smoking underwent total laryngectomy for laryngeal cancer associated with subglottic extension. Hemithyroidectomy on the lesion side was performed. On histology, SCC of the larynx and PTC were documented. Continuing to total thyroidectomy was decided secondarily and the other thyroid lobe was hyperplastic without signs of malignancy. The patient then received external radiotherapy as adjuvant therapy to surgery for his squamous cell carcinoma.

Discussion/Conclusion: Thyroid carcinoma found incidentally during treatment of SCC of the larynx is a rare event with very few cases reported in the literature. It is most often an incidental histological finding. The prognosis depends on the squamous carcinoma which therapeutic management is established. There is no well-coded management for combined thyroid and laryngeal cancers. In our patient, totalization surgery and external radiotherapy were performed as the only complement therapeutics. This was justified by the absence of poor prognostic factors for papillary thyroid carcinoma.