SOLITARY CEREBELLAR METASTASIS FROM PAPILLARY THYROID-CARCINOMA - A CASE-REPORT

Papillary thyroid carcinoma is a common thyroid malignancy that genera lly has a good prognosis. However, this type of cancer may give rise t o distant metastasis and may behave more aggressively in older patient s. Here we report clinical, radiological, and pathological findings of a patient with papillary thyroid carcinoma who had a solitary cerebel lar metastasis. The patient was known to have metastatic thyroid cance r to the lungs, but this had been stable and the cerebellar metastasis presented an unanticipated significant problem. The rapid detection o f cerebellar metastatic disease is critical because neurosurgical remo val of the solitary lesion should be considered as the treatment of ch oice. This case also serves to remind us of the importance of consider ing possible metastatic brain lesions and their acute life-threatening complications in contrast to the relatively prolonged course associat ed with metastases of thyroid carcinoma to other organs.