Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Primary cancers most likely to metastasize to the mandible. We report a case of mandibular metastasis of follicular thyroid carcinoma.

Case Report: A 68-year-old patient with gingival lesions that invaded the mandible. The mandibular tumor occurred two years after a papillary thyroid carcinoma treated by total thyroidectomy. Pathological examination of a gingival sample revealed metastasis of papillary thyroid cancer. The gingival and mandibular lesions disappeared four months after radioiodine therapy. After 20 months of follow-up, we found no sign of recurrence.

Discussion – Conclusion: If follicular thyroid carcinomas metastasize hematogenously, papillary carcinomas will rather remain intrathyroidal or will give rise to lymph node metastases. Very few cases of mandibular metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma are reported in the literature. Metastatic papillary tissue could arise from aberrant thyroid embryological remains. Mandibular metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma should be included in the list of differential diagnoses of tumors of the oral region. The survival of the patient depends on the early diagnosis and treatment.

Key word: follicular thyroid carcinoma, mandibular metastasis.