Ca. Saunders et R. Nayar, Anaplastic spindle-cell squamous carcinoma arising in association with tall-cell papillary cancer of the thyroid: A potential pitfall, DIAGN CYTOP, 21(6), 1999, pp. 413-418
Transformation of a differentiated thyroid carcinoma is an infrequent occur
rence and is usually associated with a dismal prognosis. Following a long-s
tanding history of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid, the patient in the p
resent report developed anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. The anaplastic compon
ent initially arose in the setting of papillary carcinoma with tall-cell fe
atures, represented a very small proportion of the tumor and was overlooked
at the time of the original diagnosis. Several years later the patient dev
eloped a recurrent neck mass. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of this mass rev
ealed a population of atypical spindle cells arranged singly and in papilla
ry clusters which lacked the classical cytologic features of papillary carc
inoma of the thyroid. Histology of the resected mass revealed an unusual an
d recently described subtype of thyroid carcinoma, termed "anaplastic spind
le-cell squamous carcinoma," which has been reported as occurring in associ
ation with tall-cell papillary carcinoma. The FNA findings of this unusual
subtype of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma are presented (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss,
Inc.