Brain Tumor Research and Treatment  2014;2(2):132-137

doi:10.14791/btrt.2014.2.2.132

Brain Metastases of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma with Horner's Syndrome.

Sung Hoon CHO 1 ; Sang Hyo KIM ; Jung Hwan LEE ; Won Il JOO ; Chung Kee CHOUGH ; Hae Kwan PARK ; Kyung Jin LEE ; Hyoung Kyun RHA

Affiliations

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Keywords

Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Metastases; Horner syndrome; Treatment

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type of thyroid malignancy and has relatively favorable prognosis. Blood-borne metastases of PTC are very rare among the thyroid malignancies. Moreover a case of blood-borne central nervous system metastasized PTC with only unilateral Horner's syndrome, and without any abnormalities in laboratory or physical examinations has not been described before. A 53-year-old female patient had been managed in ophthalmologic clinic due to vague symptoms of right monocular blurred vision with eye dryness for 3 months, but showed no signs of improvement. So it was performed a magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiography to evaluate the possibilities of cerebral lesion. And a left frontal mass was incidentally found, and the tumor turned out to be a PTC that had metastasized to brain, regional lymph node, cervical, thoracic spine, and lung. We describe a PTC with extraordinary initial symptoms that metastasized to an unusual site. We recommend that if a papillary thyroid tumor with unusual symptoms or at an advanced stage is found, further investigation should be performed for distant metastasis.